MSNBC guest Dave Zirin called lockdown protesters the “Fox News nazi death cult rump of the Republican Party” — and got no pushback from host Joy Reid.
Zirin, a sports editor at The Nation, appeared on a Sunday morning panel on MSNBC’s “AM Joy” to discuss the coronavirus pandemic and recent protests aimed at reopening the economy.
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Reid began the segment on the recent spate of protests by noting that defenders had compared them to civil rights protesters. (RELATED: Anyone Who Fails To Call Out The Suspected Mail Bomber Is Supporting Terrorism, Says Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Malcolm Nance)
“I don’t understand this idea of an inherent civil right to infect other people with coronavirus. Do you understand it?” Reid asked.
The Root’s Michael Harriot argued that the protesters were simply “angry white people,” saying, “It is this disaffected, angry, white people who are economically, they say, disenfranchised and they want their country back … The right to exist no matter how much they harm the people who are around them, the poor people, the people who are sick, the people who are suffering from a global pandemic. They don’t care, as long as they can get their paycheck. We saw that when Donald Trump was elected and we’re seeing it again now that we’re on the eve of another election.”
Reid agreed, noting the appearance of confederate flags at some of the protests, and adding, “They make it clear with the waving of confederate flags, it’s not like they’re hiding it under a bushel. It would be more direct and open to chant, ‘Let us infect you,’ because that’s what they’re saying. We’re in a bunch, we’re not social distancing, we could be passing this virus around here. So let us come back to work and infect y’all.”
“No, they’ve gone from all lives matter to no lives matter,” Zirin said. “These folks are — let’s be honest of what they are. They are the Fox News Nazi confederate death cult rump of the Republican Party. Their very existence is a slap in the face, not only to the health care workers on the front lines risking their lives every single day, but also a slap in the face of the people who are dying from this virus in disproportionate numbers, black and brown people.”
“These are not economically disenfranchised folks,” Zirin concluded. “These are small business owners, retirees, they want their workers sent back to work. It’s a complete farce.”
Zirin went on to say that, while it was fine to give critical coverage to the protests, he thought that the best thing to do would be for media to ignore them and deprive them of the attention.