Joy Reid Unloads On GOP Florida Gov. DeSantis – Calls Him The ‘Modern-Day George Wallace’

MSNBC host Joy Reid launched an outrageous attack on Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), saying that he was the “modern-day” version of segregationist Gov. George Wallace (D-AL) for signing the state’s new anti-rioting law.

Reid Sounds Off On DeSantis

“Republican state legislatures across the country are responding to the demonstrations over George Floyd’s murder with punitive new measures intended to discourage protests altogether,” Reid said. “In the 2021 legislative session, lawmakers in 34 states have introduced more than 80 anti-protest bills. The vast majority of them drafted by Republicans.”

“So far, four Republican governors have signed the measures into law, including in the state of Florida,” she added. “If it wasn’t already clear that this is a direct response to the Black Lives Matter protests, governor Ron DeSantis actually cited the Derek Chauvin trial when he enacted what he is calling an anti-rioting law.”

Reid Brings In Wallace

“As NPR reports, it creates a new crime called mob intimidation,” Reid said. “It requires anyone arrested at a protest be denied bail until their first court appearance, likely making for overnight jail stays. In other words, it would punish anyone at a peaceful protest that might be swept up alongside bad actors.”

“Unbelievably, that law grants civil immunity to drivers who run cars through protesters if the protesters are blocking roads,” she concluded. “This is directed at Black Lives Matter. It feels so George Wallace that I’m shocked that George Wallace didn’t actually think of it back when he was governor of Alabama.”

MSNBC Contributor Chimes In

MSNBC contributor and activist Brittany Packnett Cunningham was quick to agree with Reid.

“Oh, this is straight out of the Jim Crow textbook. Let’s contextualize Jim Crow, shall we? When Black people got more free, there were new laws created to make us less free,” she said. “This is exactly what is happening right now.”

“What this actually shows me, Joy, is that white supremacy is scared to death of us, and it absolutely should be,” Cunningham continued. “This is what you do when you cannot win fair and square. You suppress votes, and you suppress voice. So, we have to pay attention here because the GOP plays the long game, and they play the expansive game. They plan far in advance.”

“They gerrymander states so that they can control statehouses, and then they use all of that power to maintain their power and suppress us from multiple angles,” she said. “So, then they make it illegal to engage in the two most democratic practices you have got in this country, and they make sure to target Black folks when they do it.”

“That way, among other things, you can leverage the police that you have militarized to protect your systems and to continue to terrorize us,” Cunningham concluded. “So, it’s our job to keep them on the ropes because this is what desperation looks like, and I want them to stay desperate. They know how powerful we are. That’s why we’re seeing this.”

Reid Doubles Down

“The racist Miami sheriff who coined the term when the looting starts, the shooting starts, was from South Florida,” Reid chimed back in to say. “Donald Trump then turns around and quotes him. Ron DeSantis appears to really want to reenact the entire George Wallace history.”

“I guess he wants to be the modern-day George Wallace because he is enacting a slew of laws that essentially try to make it illegal to protest in the state of Florida, illegal to touch their precious Confederate statues from the losing side of the Civil War, right?” she added. “But then also — but you also can’t vote. This is Jim Crow in your state.”

This piece was written by James Samson on April 26, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.