NY Times Reporter: GOP’s ‘Corrosive Attempt’ To Undermine Democrats

[Music] we have seen growing evidence that the dangers to our country can come not only across borders but from violence that gathers within there is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home but then there's disdainful pluralism in their disregard for human life in their determination to defile national symbols they are children of the same foul spirit and it is our continuing duty to confront them hi again everyone it's five o'clock in new york twenty years ago our country faced a terrible and very realized threat from foreign terrorists but now that same foul spirit as the former president spoke to comes from within from inside our country in those comments on the 20th anniversary of 9 11 former president george w bush warned about the threat of domestic terrorism concerned about the hatred and divisiveness hardening itself within our country he expressed how the unity he witnessed two decades ago in the wake of the attack on our country is now lacking bush's warning made even more salient in light of this news from the capitol police today around midnight u.s capitol police arrested a man from california outside the dnc headquarters in washington d.c we're going to warn you now that the images we will show you display a symbol of hate these are pictures from the capitol police showing the man's pickup truck with the swastika and other white supremacist symbols painted on it officers saw a bayonet and a machete which are illegal in dc inside his truck the man told police he was on patrol and began talking to them about things pertaining to white supremacy police said in their report they do not know if he was planning to attend any upcoming demonstrations or if he has ties to any previous cases in the area this arrest comes as the city is already on high alert a rally in support of those arrested for their roles in the capital riot called justice for j6 is set to be held this saturday in washington dc law enforcement is taking steps to make sure it doesn't turn into anything resembling another january 6. earlier today u.s capitol police chief tom manger held a security briefing at the capitol for house and senate leaders here he is speaking to reporters after that briefing just a brief about the demonstration that's scheduled for uh september 18th just uh the intelligence information that we're aware of and a little bit about our operational plan about what we plan to do yeah yes the fence will go up uh a day or two before and and if everything goes well it'll go down it'll come down uh very soon after but the emotional trauma the deadly insurrection still has not healed as the fuel that inspired that attack the big lie is still being disseminated all across this country reporting in the new york times finds that the common refrains republicans have pushed to explain donald trump's loss are now being used to sow distrust around a race that hasn't even happened yet tomorrow's california recall from that reporting quote soon after the recall race was announced in early july the embers of 2020 election denialism ignited into new false claims on right-wing news sites and social media channels this vote too would supposedly be stolen with malfeasance ranging from deceptively designed ballots to nefariousness by corrupt postal workers this swift embrace of false allegations of cheating in the california recall reflects a growing instinct on the right to argue that any lost election or any ongoing race that might result in defeat must be marred by fraud the relentless falsehood spread by mr trump and his allies about the 2020 election have only fueled such fears the ongoing fight against domestic extremism to protect our homeland and our democracy is where we start this hour some of our favorite reporters and friends clint watts is here former consultant to the fbi counter terrorism division he's now a distinguished research fellow at the foreign policy research institute and an msnbc national security analyst also joining us former congresswoman donna edwards washington post contributing columnist and an msnbc contributor and nick coursenade is here new york times domestic correspondent who's reporting about the big lie and the california recall we quoted from at the top of the show nick i want to start with you because it dawns on me that should governor newsome prevail and all the polls suggest that he will um you could have the president of the united states and the governor of the largest state viewed as illegitimate by you know a nearly 40 percent of their constituents yeah and i think we're already seeing that i know uh former president trump today released a statement calling the california election rigged and a few days ago he said the same thing i predict that it will be a rigged election and it just kind of follows what we've seen on social media and conservative news sites for the past few months ever since the california recall election became a reality uh there's been you know mentions of fraud kind of continually fueled by foreign president trump's continual statements about the 2020 election and then when it looked like uh governor newsom was doing a little bit better in polling and he was expanding his advantage there then it got way more accelerated and way more prevalent you saw on fox news uh hosts like tomi lahren say the only way newsome can win is because of fraud former president trump kept talking about fraud larry elder on the campaign trail started talking about concerns about quote-unquote shenanigans and voter fraud he set up an election security or no an election integrity outfit designed for any voters who were out there you know acting to try and find fraud to send in tips so i think it's been this kind of bedrock almost of the republican base to just view voter fraud as endemic to the united states especially when they are losing and it's something that only benefits democrats and it's just been fed to them by everyone they trust from president trump to some of their most trusted news sources so no matter what it looks like at least in the immediate future this is going to be a reality when you have a clear victor with no evidence of fraud be that the president of the united states possibly governor newsom tomorrow viewed as illegitimate simply because there's been such a corrosive attempt to undermine their success by these false claims of fraud and clinton it's not just illegitimate and therefore weakening their authority to mandate vaccines to convince their constituents that they're safe um george w bush tied those lies to domestic terrorism i mean to to tie the president who pursued policies that are divisive to this hour of this day to say that the threat from al qaeda is the same as what is today the threat from within there are threats in both parties there's threats in one party they're lies being told by one party and they're being told by republicans at the highest level because by refusing to knock them down you are green lining them they are being swallowed hook line and synchro by voters what do you make of that was it was it overdue will it sink in and nicole i think it was long overdue and it it and this was remarkable that the war on terror at least for me the global war on terror was two decades and it was bookended by two speeches by george w bush i i remember him down at the world trade center uh after the attacks and to hear him that day and so poignantly point out that what we worried about the last 20 years is really not a global war on terror but it's a american war on terror within you know at this point and that's where we've come to is this divisiveness it was a remarkable speed i think it also points the the driving factor of this is when elected leaders and political candidates drive their supporters to believe things that are false and mobilize them to violence over the last 20 years we talked about guys like bin laden alec abu bakr al-baghdadi they were the ones who were putting out the vision the justifications for violence instead today what we worry about is will elected leaders come up with bogus claims about election fraud will they make up some sort of conspiracies about vaccines will they put out some sort of lie about copenhagen being real and in so doing either killed their voters and supporters just through negligence that's the case of coping 19 and vaccines at this point or mobilize them to violence i mean on january 6 i i believe it was five people that died in the course of that and most of those were still trump supporters those were people that went there and they died that day over a completely bogus story and so to watch our elected leaders continue to foment that what usually ends up happening is those that feel betrayed in the end when they find out the election wasn't rid or there is no fraud or that vaccines do work will come for them someday and that's where extremism will turn its ugly head and it could be at the capitol it could be a state local capital it could be in any of our towns around america at this point [Music] you

Channel: MSNBC

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Length: 9min 25sec (565 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 13 2021