Monday night, in the wake of a national tragedy, MSNBC's All In host Chris Hayes and guests couldn’t help but blame the President for the two horrific shootings. The tragedy was not only portrayed directly as the President’s fault, but as part of Trump's plan all along.
Hayes started off the discussion by ranting:
Even before the mass murders this weekend, even before this white supremacist committed what is being treated as an act of domestic terrorism, it has been clear from the first moment that Donald Trump came down that escalator four years ago, and particularly clear in the last few weeks as Donald Trump stood idly by as a crowd at his rally chanted 'send her back,' the President’s cultivation of racist ideology and his racist definition of what the U.S. is for, pose an existential threat to what the country's nature should be.
The left-wing host went on: “That's it. It is an existential threat that we faced down many times before and had battles over and continue to battle over, but this is as much a hinge in history about what the country we are going to be as we have ever had.” So, the President was somehow just as bad as slave-holding presidents of the past, as Andrew Jackson’s Trail of Tears, and worth “battling over”? Hayes better be careful with his rhetoric, sounds like calls for civil war.
Guest, Erika Andiola, the Chief Advocacy Officer for illegal immigration legal service group RAICES, weighed in on the discussion: “Not only is the narrative of Donald Trump creating policies against our communities, it is also actually driving actions now from people who really listen to him, who really believe what he's saying about immigrants, and obviously this person going to the border and doing what he did was specifically targeted towards immigrants.”
The President denounced white supremacy and the actions of the shooter on Monday, but of course Chris Hayes wouldn’t know: “You know, Adam, I didn't play any of the President's speech today or even mention it because it just seemed to me completely immaterial.” Hayes continued: “We know what he is and what he actually believes. And you know, you've written about this before. That the essence of what he has been selling cannot be detached from this particularly racialized vision of who really America is for, who belongs here.” At least his viewers know that his show is based off of assumptions.
Adam Serwer, writer for The Atlantic, replied: “Look, I'm sure the President doesn't actively want people to die, but both he and his advisers spent the last month telling everyone who would listen how brilliant the President's strategy of fomenting racial division was.” So Serwer isn’t ‘actively’ calling the President a murderer, but just implying that the president passively wanted people to die.
Sewer continued: “And when you're telling everyone -- when you're telling your audiences, these huge audiences of people, both who watch Fox News and who listen to the President, that the country is in danger, in existential danger because of the threat posed by people who don't look or worship like them, then you can't control how people are going to react to it.”
Of course MSNBC can engage in all the irresponsible rhetoric it wants by labeling Trump and his supporters as an "existential threat" to the country.
Here is the transcript from the August 5 episode of All In:
All In with Chris Hayes
08/05/19
08:17:01 PM ET
CHRIS HAYES: Even before the mass murders this weekend, even before this white supremacist committed what is being treated as an act of domestic terrorism, it has been clear from the first moment that Donald Trump came down that escalator four years ago, and particularly clear in the last few weeks as Donald Trump stood idly by as a crowd at his rally chanted "send her back," the President’s cultivation of racist ideology and his racist definition of what the U.S. is for, pose an existential threat to what the country's nature should be. That's it. It is an existential threat that we faced down many times before and had battles over and continue to battle over, but this is as much a hinge in history about what the country we are going to be as we have ever had. Here with me now, Erika Andiola, the chief advocacy officer of the immigration legal services group, Raices. And Adam Serwer, a staff writer at "The Atlantic" who wrote about this very idea today. Erika, what is the significance, the reverberation of this moment after what we've seen the President say and do against immigrant communities?
ERIKA ANDIOLA [RAICES CHIEF ADVOCACY OFFICER]: Yeah, I mean, it was absolutely devastating for our communities to see that. Not only is the narrative of Donald Trump creating policies against our communities, it is also actually driving actions now from people who really listen to him, who really believe what he's saying about immigrants, and obviously this person going to the border and doing what he did was specifically targeted towards immigrants. He was very clear about it. And so to me it is definitely right now very, very urgent that we're changing policies, but also that we start changing narrative and that the President needs to understand that what he's saying is going to continue to, you know, change lives, and at the end of the day also end lives as what happened just recently in El Paso.
HAYES: You know, Adam, I didn't play any of the President's speech today or even mention it because it just seemed to me completely immaterial. We know what he is and what he actually believes. And you know, you've written about this before. That the essence of what he has been selling cannot be detached from this particularly racialized vision of who really America is for, who belongs here. Who is being invaded and who the invaders are.
ADAM SERWER [THE ATLANTIC, STAFF WRITER]: Look, I'm sure the President doesn't actively want people to die, but both he and his advisers spent the last month telling everyone who would listen how brilliant the President's strategy of fomenting racial division was. And they can't control how seriously people take that. And when you're telling everyone -- when you're telling your audiences, these huge audiences of people, both who watch Fox News and who listen to the President, that the country is in danger, in existential danger because of the threat posed by people who don't look or worship like them, then you can't control how people are going to react to it. Especially when you're up there saying wouldn't it be great if we could just shoot them.
