Elie Mystal: ‘Majority of White People Voted for This; This Is the Disgusting Version of America that People Want’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
Velshi: “It’s been a firehose of stuff going on in the federal government, generally in the Department of Justice, fairly specifically this week. Some have described it as a shock and awe campaign, which might be what it is. I guess the danger is in covering Trump 2.0. how do we deal with this? Because these things have real implications. Everything. Joyce just described people affected by this. This is not an abstraction.”

MYSTAL: “This issue, what he was going to do to the Department of Justice multiple times during the election cycle because, as you pointed out in your open, this was all written down. So I don’t like the shock and awe version of this, because if you’ve been paying attention, they wrote it down. They told you exactly what they were going to do and exactly how you were going to do it. And a majority of white people voted for this. This is the disgusting version of America that people want. And oh, by the way, eggs are still more expensive, so you don’t even get that. Great job, white folks, in terms of how we cover it. As as a media or as a media group, right? We have to stop acting like any of these things have any basis in reality. Right? Your earlier segment about birthright citizenship is a perfect example of how you should cover it. There is no question about whether or not birthright citizenship is constitutional. It just is right. There is no question about whether or not the civil rights act should apply. It just does. And every time the media tries to say, Wash, Trump, whitewash Trump, explain Trump, defend Trump, what they’re doing is muddying the waters on these issues that we have already decided. Right. And I’m not saying that there’s not a place for nuance. I actually wrote in the nation about how if Trump wants to end DEI programs, that’s legal. He DEI is a policy. DEI is a policy invented by white folks to try to stop other white folks from being racist if they want to end the policy. The next media question shouldn’t be like, oh my God, you’re ending DEI. The next media question should be, okay, so what are you doing to combat racism in employment and hiring? What are you doing to combat sexism in employment and hiring in the federal government? The largest employer in the in the country? Because if the answer is nothing, well, then that becomes illegal. Well, then that violates the civil rights act. That violates the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, the equal protection clause. So the question has to be what? You want to end the act, what’s next? Right. It’s all like you’re going to repeal it. What are you going to replace it with? Because just going back to antebellum racism, that’s what’s illegal.”

Velshi: “I, my stage manager, Joe, has been looking, listening to you thinking. And he’s got a look on his face and says, does Ali—“