On Wednesday night's episode of "ReidOut," left-wing MSNBC host Joy Reid resurfaced the 2017 Charlottesville rally and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot to paint conservatives as terrorists and claim that the Republican Party is "harboring" a "white nationalist insurgency." Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California also appeared on the progressive cable TV show, where he said members of the GOP are "starting to kill our kids" because of their opinions on the COVID-19 vaccine.
Reid kicked off her show by rehashing the rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on the fourth anniversary of the deadly event.
"Four years ago tonight, we got our first on-camera glimpse of the fascism right in front of us," Reid claimed, then compared the "Unite the Right" white nationalist rally to the "torchlight rallies held at Nuremberg during the Third Reich."
Reid purported that Charlottesville was the "tinderbox" that led to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol building.
Reid then welcomed MSNBC contributor Malcolm Nance, who said the conservative base believes that Democrats "must be destroyed by force of arms."
"You know, there's a substantial portion of the gun-slinging conservative base that really doesn't support QAnon," Nance said. "Even though, and I said this a year ago on this program, QAnon would take over the Republican ideology, and it has, even though they don't allow Q shirts at Trump rallies and things like that, the belief in the inherent evilness of all Democrats and that that there's a global cabal that must be destroyed by force of arms, that is now standard throughout the conservative base."
"The Republican Party — you know, I used to joke that they were Vanilla ISIS, right, all of these militiamen and everything out there. They were like ISIS," Nance ranted, as reported by NewsBusters. "They were like al Qaeda in the sense that they radicalized online, they would meet together in secret and they did all of these activities, which were very much like a terrorist insurgency."
"Now, I think they have shifted," Nance hypothesized. "The Republican Party is more like Sinn Fein and the relationship between Sinn Fein, the Irish Nationalist Party, and the Irish Republican Army, provisional Irish Republican army terrorist group, who called themselves freedom fighters and insurgents and had Americans, American congressman sending them money to buy, you know, heavy machine guns."
Nance said some conservatives see themselves as the second coming of the Sons of Liberty and alleged many of them "are preparing for civil war right now."
Nance asserted that Republican lawmakers are "subliminally" encouraging their base to fight.
"There are many of them right now that are ready to fight and we're seeing politicians in the statehouses and the Capitol who are actually, you know, pushing them subliminally to fight," Nance claimed.
Reid asked Swalwell if he felt "comfortable and safe" working with Republicans in Congress, "who at minimum are willing to live with that kind of fascism and white nationalism in their party?"
Swalwell responded by making the accusation that Republicans would have joined in on the Capitol riots had they not been in Congress.
"No, Joy, I don't," Swalwell said of feeling safe. "And we look at many of our colleagues and believe that had they not been in Congress on January 6, they would have been on the other side of the door right next to Ashli Babbitt. And so I'm not working with them."
Swalwell then pivoted to how Republicans are "literally killing us" by conservatives claiming "the lie that the election was stolen" and "the lie that vaccines do not work also propagated by Tucker Carlson, Kevin McCarthy and, you know, those guys in the Republican Party, it's killing Americans and it's starting to kill our kids."
McCarthy, like most notable Republican politicians, has stated that "vaccines work."
Vaccines work and vaccinated Americans should not have to wear masks. By forcing vaccinated Americans to return t… https://t.co/xDQ5QdRhJQ
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) 1627422589.0
Without presenting evidence, Swalwell has attacked "those guys" in the "Radical Republican Party" for "lying about vaccines." In Twitter posts from this month, the failed Democratic presidential candidate blamed Republicans for the CDC's guidance on wearing masks indoors, including for the fully vaccinated.
You should be angry. In many places you have to wear your mask indoors again. Exciting fall plans — vacations, wedd… https://t.co/9xMoo6r502
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) 1628520570.0
Masks are back & I couldn’t be more pissed. I hate them. I was ready to burn them. But you know why we have to wear… https://t.co/ZU0iCIrd9o
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) 1628025948.0
You can watch the entire "ReidOut" segment below.
Rep. Swalwell: Twin Lies That Election Was Stolen And Vaccines Don't Work Is Killing Us www.youtube.com