Losers, Heroes & Slush Money Scumbags | The Joy Reid Show

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:05]Okay.

[00:00:11]In other news, right-wing losers are already lining up to get their reparations from the Trump slush fund.

[00:00:18]Yes, that's right. Here's some of them.

[00:00:21]Enriqueio, the maybe Fed, definitely black, but really not clear that he is. former FBI informant who was the head of the Proud Boy, the pillow guy, Mike Lindell, who claims that his brand and company suffered approximately $400 million in damages due to federal investigations and defamation lawsuits stemming from his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He was a big election uh lie guy. Mike McCloskkey, remember him? He was the guy with his wife who pulled guns on Black Lives Matter, peaceful marchers, congressional scammer George Santos, um who also sort of, you know, sidelined maybe as a drag queen.

[00:00:55]Fabulous. and Tina Peters, the insurrectionist election denier from Colorado who just got clemency um for her state crimes trying to steal the election by the MAGA Democratic Governor Jared Politz, who weirdly enough is turning out to be the John Federman of Democratic governors. And if you think congressional Republicans would never vote to release the funds to pay reparations to the people who violently attacked police on January 6, 2021, well, you don't know, Republicans.

[00:01:25]Now, >> people who assaulted police, >> look, January 6 is an issue that was made up in the first place.

[00:01:33]>> People were convicted of assaulting made up.

[00:01:36]>> That was a that was a staged thing from day one.

[00:01:39]>> What about a riot was staged?

[00:01:41]>> When you had when you had police officers letting people in the building, >> when you had people that's not being prosecuted, Ray, forget his name.

[00:01:48]There's no excuse.

[00:01:49]>> Your colleagues though, your Republican colleagues ran for their life and barricaded themselves in their chamber.

[00:01:53]Do you think they >> No, there was a riot there, but it was self-made riot by members who hate Trump. That's made up in my opinion.

[00:02:17]You will note uh that those four posts that you saw were tweets from that exact same guy, Ralph Norman of the North of South Carolina on January 6th when he was tweeting his outrage at the insurrection and the attacks on law enforcement officers. So all of a sudden now he has to repeat the lie that all of them have to repeat. They all have to go in like little robots and pretend that there was no January 6. It didn't happen. It was all made up. It was all made up, dude. You were hiding under your desk while the police officers were getting their asses kicked out there and getting hit with bear spray and you were complaining about it at the time saying that this was an outrage and all of a sudden you're like, "No, no big deal. If they if it's up to Republicans, they're going to give them the money." That's number one. Number two, notice exactly the specific amount of money that Todd Blanch has authorized to be handed out to January 6ers. It is $1 bill776,000 1776.

[00:03:21]Oh, they're playing in our faces now.

[00:03:23]They have made this fund and hinged it to the birthday of the United States as if the January 6th insurrection is akin to and equal to the revolution to create the United States. Now, caveat of course being the revolution to create the United States was a bunch of slaveholders who didn't want to pay taxes to the king but still wanted the slaves. But are these things the same?

[00:03:48]Is Donald Trump arguing that by sitting in the Capitol beating up police officers and trying to overthrow the government, the January 6ths were patriots akin to the founding fathers?

[00:03:59]and that they should not just be celebrated, which he does, but that they should also get reparations that you, the taxpayer, while you're struggling to pay your rent, while you're struggling to pay for food, while you can barely afford gas cuz it's $5 a gallon, while you are struggling economically, maybe got laid off because you got doed not for any other reason than you were a black woman or an LGBTQ or not a Trumper, while you're having religious nationalism shoved down your throat. At the same time, they won't even pray for you unless you're one of them. While all of that is happening, they're saying that you still have the money to pay for a ballroom for Trump, an arc to Trump that very much resembles the Hitler arch that he wanted to build in Germany that also has uh a bunker underneath it with hospitals and research facilities, and you're going to pay for that. And you're going to pay reparations to the people who are kicking police officers asses on January 6th. Does that make sense to you? It sure doesn't make sense to me.

[00:04:59]Joining me now, right on time for this moment, are two of the heroes of January 6, two former police officers, uh, former Capital Police Officer Harry Dunn and former Capital Police Officer turned Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fenone, who are both uh both very actively in the mix when it comes to fighting for our actual freedom. Michael Fenon has a fantastic Substack which you should all be following and we're going to talk about that later and our friend Harry Dunn is running for Congress. Uh gentlemen, >> I'm going to start with you um Harry Dunn because you are one of the officers who are the lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit about this [ __ ] >> Talk about the lawsuit.

[00:05:42]>> Uh yes, you uh are are now suing uh yourself and Daniel Hodgees are the lead plaintiffs in this. Talk about your lawsuit.

[00:05:50]Yeah, dog. Hey, Joy. Happy Friday.

[00:05:52]What's up, Mike? I see Mike's in the tattoo shop. He's probably going to get a F. Trump tattoo coming up.

[00:05:57]>> Oh my god. Have to wait. Now you he done give us some breaking news. Michael Benone, how did I not look up and see you in the tattoo shop? We We demand to know what the tattoo will be.

[00:06:07]>> Um and yeah, we we definitely want to know what it's going to be. Okay, when it's your turn, we need to know what it is. Go ahead, Harry. Done.

[00:06:12]>> Yeah. No, no. Um no, this this is crazy, right? This is crazy. I have to sue the president. I have to sue the president.

[00:06:19]And also is on the on that we're suing is uh Todd Blanch and Scott Besset too.

[00:06:24]Uh Harry Dunn versus those three and Daniel Hodgees versus those three. Um we one we believe it's illegal, right? It's illegal. They're they're distri distributing taxpayer money. Congress has the authority to do that. And we also believe there's some constitutional violations there with the 14th amendment. And also, you know, the standing issue that gives us standing that putting these vict these these what they call victims puts me and Danny and Mike and other people in harm. And because they are rewarding them, they're incentivizing them to continue the threats, the confrontations that we have to endure on a day-to-day basis. I mean, just go to your favorite right-wing extremist uh Twitter feed and just look at the comments under where they posted about us getting the our lawsuit or look under Daniel Hajes's um Twitter feed right now and there are literally death threats in public comments there. They are more emboldened. The death threats have gone up over and over countlessly.

[00:07:19]You know, Michael knows about it. We know I know about it. And it's just only going to continue to embolden them. So, we are suing not we're we're suing to stop this to dissolve this illegal fund.

[00:07:30]And you know, we think we got a good shot at this. And above all, we are on the right side of this morally morally.

[00:07:37]And taxpayers should not be fronting the Listen, if they want to start a GoFundMe account or drop their Cash App links, then then fine, go ahead and do that.

[00:07:45]But taxpayers under no circumstances should be on the hook to fund Donald Trump's private militia.

[00:07:52]taxpayers. You all, you're taxpayers.

[00:07:55]They're literally saying, Michael Fon, that you are going to pay the people who tried to kill you. You would have to, as a taxpayer, be paying the people who tried to kill you. That is how crazy this is.

[00:08:08]>> Yeah. I mean, um, it it's outrageous.

[00:08:12]It's insane. Um, I do want to say something first, though. You know, Joy, I want to take a moment to uh to thank Harry Dunn and to thank Danny Hodes for once again uh standing in the breach between this lawless unconstitutional insurrectionist government that we currently are uh forced to live under in this country. Uh, and you know, I hope that the American people recognize that this lawsuit is not just on their behalf or on my behalf or on the officer's behalf. It's on the American people's behalf. They're protecting the American people from what inevitably uh with this payoff of these violent insurrectionists would result in more acts of political violence uh in the future because that's what this is designed to do. Make no mistake about it. Um, you know, Donald Trump pardoned the violent insurrectionists and now he's paying the violent insurrectionists knowing full well that this will inspire future violent insurrectionists to act in his be or on his behalf. Um, and the timing of it couldn't be uh, you know, more significant in that it's in the leadup to the midterm elections. He knows his party knows that they cannot win. they cannot win on their policies because their policies are inhumane.

[00:09:37]Their policies are unconstitutional.

[00:09:39]They are illegal. Uh but he does know that he can scare people away from the ballot box. He can intimidate Americans.

[00:09:48]Uh and you know, he can also attempt to do pretty much anything that he wants to do unless somebody is willing to stand in the breach and stop them. So, thank you, Harry. I know exactly what comes with this. Death threats and um and all the other uh you know [ __ ] taunts and um keyboard warriors that uh that jump out even from our former colleagues in law enforcement. Uh and so from me to you. Thank you.

[00:10:17]>> You got it, brother. Absolutely.

[00:10:19]>> Much appreciate that. And let I mean, and I think you've made the the really salient point here, uh, Mike, because they know that they're going to do poorly in this next election, and they would very much love to inspire a next group of people or even maybe the same people to come back and do it again, knowing not only do you get a pardon, you actually get cash. Uh, let me play, let me play backto-back, Jason, these two. A7 is Donald Trump justifying this and then Todd Blanch answering the question that he needed to answer.

[00:10:46]believe that people who committed violence against Capitol Hill police officers on January 6 should be eligible for compensation from this DOJ fund. And are you or your family members going to be seeking compensation from that fun?

[00:10:58]>> It'll all be dependent on a committee. A committee is being set up of very talented people, very highly respected people. I think it's a committee of five. And again, I didn't do this deal.

[00:11:08]It was told to me uh yesterday. They said they're doing something. I do believe there has to be compensation for people that were destroyed. You have families absolutely destroyed and it's all going to be determined by a committee of four or five people that are respected and very brilliant at what they do.

[00:11:26]>> You lying top law enforcement official right now. Would you be okay with people who were convicted of hurting police getting taxpayer money?

[00:11:36]>> Just to be clear, people that hurt police get money all the time. Okay.

[00:11:40]There's a process where where if you are if you are if you believe you have your rights violated um you can you can apply for funds, you can sue, you can file a claim, you can go to court. In some of those cases, the state, the government, the federal government settles those cases. It's abhorrent to ever ever touch a law enforcement officer, which is why anytime anybody does that and it's a federal officer will prosecute them. But that's a completely different question with whether an individual is allowed to apply for a claim. Whether they'll get a claim, who depends. I I can't it's not it would not be appropriate for me to to to talk about um absolutes like absolutely not under no circumstances. I mean, we can talk about hypotheticals till we're blue in the face. But but um but that really wouldn't be fruitful.

[00:12:26]>> Michael, >> yeah, Todd Blanch is a lying, treasonous piece of [ __ ] This is Donald Trump's personal attorney who's cosplaying as the acting attorney general of the United States. Um, I mean, his mere presence in that position is an affront to the Constitution. It's an affront to law enforcement in this country. It's an affront to the rule of law. Um, I mean, he has made the rule of law meaningless in this country. We don't have a rule of law. Um, what we have is people that support Donald Trump. uh and you know and then people who are in opposition to Donald Trump who suffer the consequences for merely standing in opposition to his fascist racist policies. Uh and so do you know Todd Blanch can you know get in line for the many people that I have told to go [ __ ] themselves um because he is an absolute utter disgrace to law enforcement but he's also a disgrace to humanity.

[00:13:31]Um I mean what a scumbag.

[00:13:36]>> Well said. I mean, Harry, he also should have his bar license, but go on, please, Harry.

[00:13:42]>> No, absolutely. everything that Michael said a hundred times, but also I I want to go back to the first thing he said about people getting payments uh for assaulting police because let's be let's be 100% clear. There are times in law enforcement makes mistakes and there are abused people and they people get settlements from wrongful arrest uh uh uh battery um un uh uh unjustified force. There are times where that absolutely happens and we need to not conflate the two those two issues because what happened on January 6th and what he mentioned earlier they are not even comparable. And then he goes on to later say in that same sentence that runon sentence he goes later on to say that if you assault federal officers you will be prosecuted and there's no excuse for it. The people that are being considered for payments right now are people who assaulted federal law enforcements. So how can he and his he's talking out his ass right now. Donald Trump is in control of that fund. And like Michael said, Todd Blanch is Donald Trump's personal attorney. These five individuals that are going to be appointed, they're going to be appointed by Todd Blanch to do what Blanch says.

[00:14:49]And Todd Blanch is going to do what Donald Trump says. So Donald Trump is in control of this fund. And you know, talking about going back to the lawsuit, we want Congress absolutely to pass laws and to stop this. Donald Trump would have to sign any law that Congress passed and there's no way in hell that he's going to do it. So the best way to stop this is this lawsuit that we have going forward and you know we do believe we're going to win. We believe we have standing. We and obviously it just it sends a message too. But we're not we want to do more than just send a message or make this symbolic. We want to stop this illegal ass fund to fund his private militia. It's wrong. And Todd Blanch so full of [ __ ] Like go I'll say to my go f yourself man.

[00:15:29]>> I mean it's very clear and the 14th amendment is very clear. Um, I'm not a constitutional scholar or constitutional lawyer, but it's very clear that insurrection in the in article three of the con of the 14th amendment, it's very clear the federal government cannot pay insurrectionists. That is just not something that is constitutional at all.

[00:15:47]I know that that's part of your lawsuit, but Jason, if you could put up A5 again because in beyond the people that are that assaulted police officers who apparently are eligible, it's A5. Yeah.

[00:15:56]If you pull that, you're talking about pe about Donald Trump wanting to compensate anyone who was willing to lie about the election being stolen and anyone who acted against Black Lives Matter violently, the McCloskis who literally pulled AR-15s on peaceful protesters and and Enriqueio who was not on president at um uh on January 6 because like Osama bin Laden, he let everybody else do the dirty work while he hung back. But he was someone who had already committed crimes in DC, having a gun, taking down the Black Lives Matter banner. So, I mean, Michael, they, you know, it's beyond just the people who did that. Donald Trump is trying to send a message that as long as he's willing to repeat the big lie. He's willing to pay you to do it. This is just an incentive to I think you made a great point in November when they lose to Democrats in these House elections.

[00:16:47]They're paying people effectively to do the same thing again.

[00:16:51]>> Yes. and and you know if that's what we're looking at in the future um after these payouts I also want to look to the not so diff distant past because I surmise that these uh sick that stood around and come up with these insane policies uh that one of the things that they thought that was hilarious about this and the timing of it and the 1776 is that it comes you know in the immediate aftermath of the gutting of the voting rights act. And so what this is is it is reparations for angry white men uh in a time or at a time in which they have taken away the ability uh for equal representation for communities of color in this country. Uh and in addition to that, it's rubbing it in the faces of so many people um you know who have been demanding rightfully so reparations for slavery, the original sin of this country, which still in many forms continues to this day. And they're saying, "Haha, we've got reparations, but it's for white mother, not for communities of color, not for the descendants of slaves. We are going to give our reparations to angry white people." and they're being very clear about that.

[00:18:08]>> Yeah. And also real quick, >> no, sorry. Sorry, Joy, but I wanted to regarding that that image that you just that the image that you just had up regarding election deniers and everything like that. I'm I'm sure Governor Polus is feeling really good now about Tina Peters now potentially being able to get a with that pardon that he did. What the hell was he thinking? And people are talking about Democrats aren't fighting hard enough.

[00:18:31]We got governors out here that are pardoning criminals and election deniers saying, "Hey, we think that the system was too hard on her. Give me a break."

[00:18:39]She's the type of person that caused January 6. Ki Lake, the type of people that caused Rudy Giuliani, Mike Lindell, all of these people with their election denial BS are the same people that caused this. This is their fault. It's just it's insane. And that and that's why we talking about people with, you know, going into a little campaign mode right now. It's not just about electing Democrats because Democrats are we can't get out of our own way at time. It's about electing the right Democrats who understand you can't play nice with these people. Clear. We can't play nice with them. It's not about reach reach across the aisle to do what?

[00:19:14]>> To do what? It's a bunch of BS, Joy.

[00:19:17]>> There's nothing across the aisle to reach out for. Go ahead, Michael.

[00:19:20]>> No, I I I completely agree with Harry.

[00:19:22]And you know, at a time like I have so many conversations with people who are so afraid of the midterm elections and they're just like, "We need to put forward a candidate, a Democratic candidate who is going to get elected."

[00:19:33]I say absolutely not because look at John Federerman. Look at Jared Polus. Um I look at Abigail Spamber right now in Virginia. These people are absolute utter disgraces. They have betrayed the people that fought so hard to get them elected. Um, and so it's about getting the right candidate selected, somebody who's going to go and fight, not be another corporist Democrat, uh, that just plays by the same old same old rules, uh, and gets us nowhere. And we need people that are willing to put accountability at the forefront of their platform because if we've already seen how this play this movie plays out. We experienced it once post civil war. You know, we we had prohibited Confederate u members from serving. Anybody who engaged in that insurrection um you know who was guilty of treason, you know, we we allowed them to keep their lives.

[00:20:29]Mhm.

[00:20:30]>> Um but they weren't supposed to be serving in government. And then the great compromise, we allowed them back in. We ended up with what? Jim Crow. Um and then here we are. And then this movement, this MAGA movement is is a direct descendant of that of the clan of Jim Crow. I mean, we're seeing it play out now in real time. And so if we're not going to hold these people accountable, um, and we need to get creative with how we go about holding them accountable, at the very least prohibiting them from ever serving in any office. I don't give a [ __ ] if it's the PTA.

[00:21:05]>> You shouldn't be able, you shouldn't be allowed. I think there's some people who have risen to the level of maybe losing their right to vote. Um, you know, if if we can't get the if we can't get them to, you know, serve jail time because Donald Trump is just going to go willy-nilly and pardon every mother that's involved in in his administration. Um, at the very least, you know, explore state charges or start taking away people's political voice, their ability to engage in in politics in this country because they don't deserve it.

[00:21:36]>> I like the way you think, Michael Fenone, and if you run for something, I'm definitely going to vote for I might be your campaign manager.

[00:21:41]>> That's Harry's lane, dude.

[00:21:42]>> We going we going to put both of you in office. Last question to you, Harry Dunn. You are running and I I will note and I did want to ask you this before I let you go. Uh you're now running in a 18,000 person race where the governor uh and the United States senator um one of the United States senators and of course Sandy Hoyer have endorsed your opponent.

[00:22:02]And uh I'm not sure how how well verssed they are in how much Adrien Boafo is a creature of the same lobby that Apac represents. It's just a different name.

[00:22:14]He was very enthusiastically supported by an Apac clone, which concerns a lot of folks when they look at the fact that he could go into Congress and vote for more money for bombs, no money for us.

[00:22:26]And I think a lot of people are about sick of doing wars for Israel. He seems like a war for Israel guy. we have invited him on the show and we'll see what he says about coming on. But what do you make of the fact that he was able to snare those endorsements? Um, and what do you make of his chances now?

[00:22:41]>> Well, I attribute a lot of that to Stenny Hoyer who's did 45 years of uh public service to Maryland. And you know what? Let's be no know Steny Hoy has done a lot of great things also, but he spent 45 years uh in Congress. Um, times are a lot different than when he was. Uh so I mean I can appre I can understand people have to endorse who they want to do. You know, I I have a lot of endorsements also, most recently the working families party. Um that is all about working families and people that can afford Joy. I've raised a lot of money when over this race and my average contribution is about 17 bucks. And that just means a lot to me with so many people can't afford gas, they can't afford groceries, they got to pick and choose. And people, you hear this all the time. They're going to pick and choose. Am I going to pay the light bill? Pay the light. It's it's a lot of stuff. But it's real. It's real life out there when people being able to say, "Hey, Harry, I support you. Hey, you're the type of fighter we need." This is I am respected anybody. I don't think there's anybody more qualified maybe in the country that understands the gravity of where we are right now. I have shed blood for this country on the steps of the United States capital. You know, I it is personal for me. I am struggling personally personally with all these finance. They got money for this illegal war. They got monies for ballrooms like you were talking about earlier in this dumbass bunker. They got money for this bill billions of dollars for these terrorists, but we can't afford health care. We can't pay our veterans. We can't fund SNAP. No, we can afford it.

[00:24:05]Yeah, they just don't want to cuz they don't give a damn about us. So, all these corporations and these P think about this real quick. I'm give you I know I don't want to go too long, but think about real quick. C individuals individuals are limited to how much they can donate in a campaign season, which is $6,600.

[00:24:21]That's the most any individual can donate. Ask Ask how much Apac can donate. Ask how much the NRA can donate.

[00:24:27]Ask how much Walmart can donate. It's unlimited. Why in the world would you put a limit on people and no limit on corporations? Because when you start putting profits over people, then you get the damn mess that we're in right now. And it's a shame and we should not be doing. How the hell can we live in a country where people can't even afford to get sick, Joy? It's absolute BS. And those these aren't extreme policies.

[00:24:50]It's common sense. paying people wages that they can live in the communities that they work in and love. Is that extreme? No, it's not extreme. It's common effing sense. We appreciate you and we appreciate both of your service to this country. Um, we are rooting for you, my friend, uh, Harry Dunn, who is of course running for Congress. We're going to put the website in the link.

[00:25:08]And of course, Michael Fenone. Please subscribe to all of Michael's things because he is out there saying all the things that we need to hear from the history of the president. And let me tell you something, he read John Federman for filth. I'm going to put a link to that underneath here cuz you need to read you need to listen to that too cuz he let him have it. Uh thank you both. I appreciate What's the tattoo going to be, Michael?

[00:25:27]>> Uh I to be totally honest with you, I don't have a clue yet.

[00:25:30]>> Let us know. Okay. Text me. Let me know.

[00:25:32]I want to know. I really genuinely want to know. We're going to bring you back on and talk about the tat sometime.

[00:25:37]Thank you all both. Have a wonderful Memorial Day. Appreciate both of you.

[00:25:40]We're going to put the links in the chat. Make sure that everybody can see how to follow these two gentlemen.

[00:25:49]Okay. Okay.