MSNBC’s Joy Reid and The Nation’s justice correspondent Elie Mystal did not take the news that Colorado had a rough day before the Supreme Court as it tried to defend its decision to kick Donald Trump off its primary ballot well on the former’s Friday show. Instead of actually trying to understand conservative legal philosophy, all they could do was play the race and sexism cards.
Joy Reid found it “ironic” that conservative justices in particular are all about states’ rights on things such as abortion and redistricting but are not enthusiastic about a state declaring Trump to be an insurrectionist and asked Mystal, “Do you find that stuff ironic too, Elie?”
Of course, insurrection against the United States is, by definition, a federal crime and the Constitution explicitly lays out the requirements for presidential eligibility. It does not say anything about abortion or redistricting, but Mystal projected his desire that the Court always align with his partisan goals onto the Court’s conservatives:
It's almost like the states’ rights argument was invented by white supremacist patriarchs to allow the states to keep black people and women under control and that's the only thing the argument is good for, because when we try to use it for something else, apparently it doesn't matter. It's almost like that's what we're seeing, isn't it, Joy?”
Mystal proceeded to add to Reid’s list of alleged hypocrisies, “Let us not forget that it is the conservative justices who consistently tell us that the states have the right to restrict voting access, restrict early voting access, keep felons off the ballot, that every state has the right to keep people from accessing the ballot, but now, yesterday, they turned around and said that the states don't have the right to decide who is on their own ballot.”
The dishonest framing of “keep people from accessing the ballot” aside, again, the Constitution doesn’t say anything about early access or felons, but it does mention presidential eligibility requirements and states cannot add to or take away from those.
Unfortunately, Mystal was not done, “John Roberts literally acted like it couldn't possibly be his job to know, because if he might have to make one ruling for Colorado and a whole different ruling for Texas, how could he limit it when he's literally the same guy who says that Texas gets to gerrymander however it wants and Colorado gets to gerrymander however it wants and New Jersey gets to gerrymander however it wants.”
For her part, Reid did not understand the difference between Colorado officials seeking to kick Trump off the ballot and Florida voters selecting George W. Bush in 2000, “And the thing is, let’s also not forget that John Roberts, Amy Coney Barrett, and Brett Kavanaugh were on the team that decided Florida gets to decide who the president was in 2000. Let's just not forget that either.”
Florida did not decide the 2000 election. The other 49 states plus D.C. also voted. Florida’s results simply took longer to finalize because of multiple recounts and legal battles. How “ironic” it was that in a segment about supposed irony amid a case about election denialism there contained left-wing election denialism.
Here is a transcript for the February 9 show:
MSNBC The ReidOut
2/9/2023
7:48 PM ET
JOY REID: Do you find that stuff ironic too, Elie?
ELIE MYSTAL: It's almost like the states’ rights argument was invented by white supremacist patriarchs to allow the states to keep black people and women under control and that's the only thing the argument is good for, because when we try to use it for something else, apparently it doesn't matter. It's almost like that's what we're seeing, isn't it, Joy?
JOY REID: It's almost.
MYSTAL: The irony is rife here. When we talk about elections, you're absolutely right to bring up abortion and Mitchell and his kind of torturous role through all of this. He's the through line through all of this hypocrisy, but when we talk about elections specifically, let us not forget that it is the conservative justices who consistently tell us that the states have the right to restrict voting access, restrict early voting access, keep felons off the ballot, that every state has the right to keep people from accessing the ballot, but now, yesterday, they turned around and said that the states don't have the right to decide who is on their own ballot.
John Roberts literally acted like it couldn't possibly be his job to know, because if he might have to make one ruling for Colorado and a whole different ruling for Texas, how could he limit it when he's literally the same guy who says that Texas gets to gerrymander however it wants and Colorado gets to gerrymander however it wants and New Jersey gets to gerrymander however it wants.
So, the hypocrisy was deep and, yes, ironic but also troubling and also again, just shows the intellectual paucity of the entire conservative argument here.
REID: And the thing is, let’s also not forget that John Roberts, Amy Coney Barrett, and Brett Kavanaugh were on the team that decided Florida gets to decide who the president was in 2000. Let's just not forget that either.
