MSNBC host Joy Reid blasted some disturbing remarks made by a far-right organization leader who made headlines for talking of an impending “second American Revolution.”
During a segment of her show, “The ReidOut,” Reid played a clip of those remarks made by Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts on Tuesday on the right-wing streaming and cable channel Real America’s Voice.
“We are going to win,” Roberts said on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast. “We’re in the process of taking this country back. We’re in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”
The Heritage Foundation sits at the vanguard of a far-right and far-reaching policy agenda outlined in a massive nationalist initiative called Project 2025.
More than 100 right-wing think tanks and groups have joined forces with the foundation to back the effort, which would ultimately upend the federal government if Donald Trump is re-elected.
“Should Donald Trump be re-elected and elected king, God help us all, he will be surrounded by people like this guy, the head of the Heritage Foundation, the folks behind Project 2025, who said the quiet part real loud and televised,” Reid said.
A 920-page blueprint on the project is filled with several policy recommendations that would overhaul the nation’s administrative state and oust tens of thousands of civil servants from the federal workforce to make room for conservative loyalists, expand the power of the president, dismantle the Department of Education and other federal agencies, and make sweeping tax cuts.
“When I heard that clip of that guy … essentially issue a violent threat against Americans, I had two thoughts. Thought one, he’s not going to do anything violent,” said Reid. “He’ll be at a country club somewhere golfing, while the real violent people, the other people, the Proud Boys types do the actual dirty work. So that man is a coward, and he likes to talk a lot of crap, but it is still a threat. And I took it as a declaration of war.”
Several Democrats were disquieted by Roberts’ remarks and noted that the “revolution” he spoke of would rupture the fabric of core American ideals.
Former Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson wrote on X, “This is chilling. Their idea of a second American Revolution is to undo the first one.”
President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign spokesperson, James Singer, emailed a statement to AP referencing the Independence Day holiday in response to Robert’s remarks.
“248 years ago tomorrow, America declared independence from a tyrannical king, and now Donald Trump and his allies want to make him one at our expense,” Singer said, adding that Trump and his supporters are ”dreaming of a violent revolution to destroy the very idea of America.”
Roberts doubled down on his comments in a follow-up statement: “These patriots are committed to peaceful revolution at the ballot box. Unfortunately, it’s the Left that has a long history of violence, so it’s up to them to allow a peaceful transfer of power.”
