MSNBC’s Joy Reid is fretting that former President Donald Trump will be able to recast himself as a victim after narrowly surviving an assassination attempt.
Reid spoke about the “universal” reaction she has been hearing after the attempt on Trump’s life and a “deep concern” about how it could impact the 2024 race.
“The universal reaction that I’m getting, whether it’s civilians or, you know, professionals, is really a deep concern and lack of confidence in, not us at this table or us at MSNBC, but us as the media writ large,” the MSNBC host said.
She continued, “And a fear that what’s going to happen now is that the Republican Party will do what they do. They’re in the middle of a campaign, you know, the convention started today, but the media will acquiesce to trying to convince people that the things they’ve been experiencing for the last five, six years didn’t happen.”
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Reid went on:
“That the greatest purveyor and promoter of political violence, really, since anyone can remember, since George Wallace, I think, that we just haven’t experienced that kind of open, you know, sort of citing or sort of incitement of violence or sort of luxuriating in the idea of violence. It’s just not something we’re used to anymore in American politics. And then we had to get used to that being a thing.”
Finally, she said, “And people are concerned and expressing concern that we won’t be the guardians of memory and that we will allow Donald Trump, as he is, you know, bathed in the glory and grandeur of his party, to rewrite himself. as both a hero and a victim – people who are the most vulnerable to not just the things he’s done, but the things he’s promising to do. And that that will then happen without a guardian saying: ‘Wait, stop!’ and then the media will acquiesce to this rewrite. And the people that I’ve been talking to don’t accept the rewrite.”
Her comment comes days after Trump narrowly dodged an assassination attempt as a bullet struck his ear instead and missed the rest of his head.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Trump acknowledged how close he came to death.
“The most incredible thing was that I happened to not only turn but to turn at the exact right time and in just the right amount,” he said, “If I only half-turn, it hits the back of the brain. The other way goes right through [the skull]. And because the sign was high, I’m looking up. The chances of my making a perfect turn are probably one tenth of one percent, so I’m not supposed to be here.”
Trump added, “Because the thing was an eighth of an inch away. That I would turn exactly at that second, where he [the gunman] wouldn’t stop the shot is pretty amazing. Pretty amazing. I’m really not supposed to be here.”
