Joy Reid: On January 6, I Worried Rioters Would Destroy Black History Museum

As she watched rioters break into the U.S. Capitol last January 6, MSNBC host Joy Reid has revealed her greatest worry was that the mob would vandalize the Black History Museum, because the protests were “deeply rooted in anti-blackness.”

“I can remember every moment of that day, really, and thinking to myself, ‘My God I hope that these marauding masses of MAGA supporters don’t find the Black History Museum and ransack it.’ That was the first thing that struck me as I saw them, you know, heading toward the Capitol and starting to bash their way in,” said Reid on the anniversary of the disturbance. “For some reason that was the thing that stuck in my head.” She also said a picture of a man holding a Confederate flag inside the U.S. Capitol “disgusts me more than any of the other images” of the January 6 riots.

Reid proceeded to racialize the actions of a mostly white mob trying to prevent mostly white legislators from certifying the election of one white, male, septuagenarian in place of another.

Reid noted the riot took place “the same day that Georgia elected the state’s first black senator and first Jewish senator. The attack on our Capitol was also an attack on those victories, an outright refusal of having to accept the will and the votes of black and brown Americans.” In reality, the Georgia runoff elections took place on January 5; state officials certified the results on January 19; and the rioters did not mention the election of Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff (D) as their rationale.

“The events of January 6th were certainly anti-democratic, but they were also deeply rooted in anti-blackness,” Reid asserted. She said the rioters brandished a “particularly gruesome symbol of anti-black terrorism” by using a noose to threaten white Vice President Mike Pence. “They wanted to lynch him, because he refused to reverse an election that black and brown people and people of color, [Asian-American and Pacific Islander] people, had … won,” she said without evidence.

.@DrIbram: “Indeed, studies show that what singularly distinguishes #Trump voters are people who somehow believe that White people are the primary victims of racism.” #TheReidOut #reiders pic.twitter.com/KNvSFh9ILm

— The ReidOut (@thereidout) January 9, 2022

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) seconded her assessment. “Joy, I think it’s really important that we not whitewash what spurred and perpetuated this Big Lie, ultimately resulting in this insurrection, and that is white supremacy,” she said on “The ReidOut.” Pressley went on to describe January 6 as “a white supremacist, violent mob backlash to historic, record voter turnout that was driven by record numbers of black and brown voters. … It is important that we not have selective amnesia about that.”

.@RepPressley: “I think it’s really important that we not whitewash what spurred and perpetuated this Big Lie ultimately resulting in this insurrection. And that is White supremacy.” #TheReidOut #reiders pic.twitter.com/Es8m3Z5afT

— The ReidOut (@thereidout) January 7, 2022

Later that evening, CNN’s Don Lemon echoed similar talking points. “Can you imagine if [the rioters] weren’t white, what would have happened?” he asked:

We cannot forget all the racist hate on display on January 6th. I mean, there was a noose displayed on gallows outside of the Capitol. Rioters were waving Confederate flags inside the halls of Congress.

“How significant is the role of white supremacy in playing out in this threat to our democracy?” Lemon asked his guest, former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe. The former Obama official claimed that “the majority” of January 6 rioters “come from counties where there are declining white populations,” and so they had fallen for “the great replacement theory.”

The rioters of January 6 apparently acted in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris over President Donald Trump and Vice President Pence. No authority has cited racial animus as a motivating factor.

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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