MSNBC's Chris Hayes took Republicans to the woodshed over their dangerous new lies about the upcoming No Kings protests.
HAYES: This week we've been watching protests gather across the country, large and small, planned and impromptu. We saw a massive crowd march through Chicago this week. We covered it live on the air here against the escalating lawlessness there by masked federal agents.
Tonight there was a growing crowd in New York to protest the indictment of State Attorney General Letitia James on direct orders from Donald Trump. More and bigger protests are coming because millions of Americans are appalled with the direction the country is going in and they refuse to be silenced as their communities are being torn apart.
And that explains the incredibly dishonest and downright dangerous new talking point being pushed by MAGA. Republicans on Capitol Hill are claiming that peaceful protesters are part of a terrorist network hell-bent on destroying America, and that Democrats shut down the government, the government Republicans control, to do the bidding of these evil, violent leftists.
After showing clips House Speaker Mike Johnson and various other Republicans calling the protests the "Hate America rally," and accusing people who will be attending of being "professional protesters" paid by George Soros, Antifa, pro-Hamas and various other smears, Hayes let them have it.
HAYES: I mean, really guys, really? The terrorist wing of the party? A Hate America rally? There is a very large peaceful protest that is planned for October 18th. By the way, I don't think the Democrats have any relationship to whether they're holding the government hostage over it. It's completely has nothing to do with the other.
That protest is not gonna just be in Washington, but it's gonna be in thousands of communities across the country. Now, I'm gonna tell you something. It's not called a hate America protest. They couldn't actually say the name of the protest because it would be so obviously American in its name.
It is the No Kings protest. No Kings being a value I think that unites all of us as Americans. Republicans are trying to paint this as some kind of a reverse January 6th plot by leftist terrorists, but it's a lie. It's a despicable lie, honestly, and a dangerous one.
Because there was already a No Kings protest early this year. Remember? We both lived through it. It's not that long ago. You might've even been there if you're listening to this right now. I covered it live at this desk.
Along with the other estimated five million Americans who were there of every background and age and they marched and they danced and they sang and they carried signs. Some of them smart snarky, some of them quite funny. All across the country in more than 2000 cities and towns. It was held on June 14th, Flag Day. It even out drew Donald Trump's birthday parade of army tanks that same day. Remember that?
So when all those macro Republicans went out and advanced the protest, to try to criminalize protected political activity, the organizers of the upcoming No Kings rally responded, quote, after a few moments of laughter, the No Kings coalition issued the following statement. Speaker Johnson is running out of excuses for keeping the government shut down. Instead of reopening the government, preserving affordable healthcare or lowering costs for working families, he's attacking millions of Americans who are peacefully coming together to say that America belongs to its people, not to kings. We'll see everyone on October 18th. The group reaffirmed its commitment to nonviolence and said its organizers were trained in de-escalation.
Republicans, led by the Speaker of the House, are telling the public that a peaceful demonstration on the National Mall, again, we already had one, right? This isn't just a thought experiment. We had a big one in June. They're planning another one, but this will actually be a gathering of organizations the administration has formally designated in an executive order as violent terrorists.
And again, it's preposterous and comical at one level, but again, this is incendiary and incredibly dangerous. But that's the point. They understand these protests are powerful. They are trying to intimidate people from turning out with lies and conspiracy theories.
It's not going to work. Shame on every one of the liars for being willing to destroy what's left of our democracy for Trump and trying to intimidate people as Hayes correctly noted.
