In a panel discussion about the Republican National Convention, Joy Reid argued that Donald Trump will paint himself as a hero and a victim and the media will allow him to do so.
Donald Trump is not a capable politician. In fact, he knows next to nothing about the issues facing the American public. Trump connects with his mostly white voter base by pushing fear and grievance. The recent assassination attempt will allow him to push these issues aggressively.
Reid told her fellow panelists, "And a fear that what’s going to happen now is that the Republican Party will do what they do. They’re in the middle of a campaign. there you know, the convention started today. that the media will acquiesce to trying to convince people that the things they’ve been experiencing for the last five, six years didn’t happen."
The host continued, "That the greatest purveyor and promoter of political violence, really, since anyone can remember, since George Wallace, I think, that we just haven’t experienced that kind of open, you know, sort of citing or sort of incitement of violence or sort of luxuriating in the idea of violence. It’s just not something we’re used to anymore in American politics. And then we had to get used to that being a thing."
Watch a clip of the segment here
Reid closed:
"And people are concerned and expressing concern that we won’t be the guardians of memory and that we will allow Donald Trump, as he is, you know, bathed in the glory and grandeur of his party, to rewrite himself. as both a hero and a victim – people who are the most vulnerable to not just the things he’s done, but the things he’s promising to do. And that that will then happen without a guardian saying: ‘Wait, stop!’ and then the media will acquiesce to this rewrite. And the people that I’ve been talking to don’t accept the rewrite."