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The cast of Friday’s installment of MSNBC’s The ReidOut had a rather odd explanation for how the Republican Party has managed to win over working-class voters: racism towards former President Barack Obama. All host Joy Reid and author Christina Greer had to do was ignore that Donald Trump did better with all demographics and won in states that Obama also won.

Reid wondered, “This is an incredible trick that the Republican—and that the right in general has played of getting working-class non-college voters, particularly to really side wholesale with the Republican Party, which is literally against fair wages, against overtime, and in favor of everything that billionaires want and voila. How have they been able to do that?

Greer, whose book is entitled How to Build a Democracy, replied, “Well, Joy, I have quoted, you know, LBJ on the show several times, but to paraphrase his famous quote, if you give the poorest of the white man someone to look down on, you can pick his pockets all day long, and if you, you know, convince him long enough, he’ll open his pockets for you, and this is what Donald Trump and the Republican Party has consistently done for decades now.”

Next, the democracy builder claimed voters are too dumb to know what is in their own interests, “I mean, you are going to labor—union workers and saying, ‘I don’t support unions, I support scabs, I don’t like paying overtime. I’m going to bust up the framework of the American economy’ and people are still voting for him, so they’re voting against their interests consistently because they’re not looking at Donald Trump and his best friend billionaire standing right next to him.”

Greer then turned to the race card, “He’s essentially saying you don’t have because immigrants took it, because Barack Obama and all his fancy educated black friends took it. These are the things he has said consistently, and they listen whilst ignoring the reality, their economic reality. They say it’s all about economic anxiety, but you and I both know African Americans understand, especially African American women, understand the brunt of economic anxiety because we’re paid 60 cents on the dollar compared to everyone else.”

First of all, the Washington Free Beacon recently estimated that Reid has an annual salary of $3 million, so perhaps she and Greer aren’t the right people to be complaining about pay discrepancies.

Second of all, we call them “swing states” because they tend to swing back and forth between the parties. They voted for Obama twice, then voted for Trump, then for Joe Biden, and then Trump again. Were voters racist in 2016 and 2024, but not in 2008, 2012, and 2020? We also know Trump improved with voters of all backgrounds, so not only is Greer smearing people, her claim has the added demerit of being wrong.

Here is a transcript for the November 22 show:

MSNBC The ReidOut

11/23/2024

7:36 PM ET
JOY REID: This is an incredible trick that the Republican — and that the right in general has played of getting working class non-college voters particularly, to really side wholesale with the Republican Party which is literally against fair wages, against overtime, and in favor of everything that billionaires want and voila. How have they been able to do that?

CHRISTINA GREER: Well, Joy, I have quoted, you know, LBJ on the show several times, but to paraphrase his famous quote, if you give the poorest of the white man someone to look down on, you can pick his pockets all day long, and if you, you know, convince him long enough, he’ll open his pockets for you, and this is what Donald Trump and the Republican Party has consistently done for decades now.

I mean, you are going to labor—union workers and saying, “I don’t support unions, I support scabs, I don’t like paying overtime. I’m going to bust up the framework of the American economy” and people are still voting for him, so they’re voting against their interests consistently because they’re not looking at Donald Trump and his best friend billionaire standing right next to him. 

He’s essentially saying you don’t have because immigrants took it, because Barack Obama and all his fancy educated black friends took it. These are the things he has said consistently, and they listen whilst ignoring the reality, their economic reality. They say it’s all about economic anxiety, but you and I both know African Americans understand, especially African American women, understand the brunt of economic anxiety because we’re paid 60 cents on the dollar compared to everyone else.