Former chairman of the Republican National Committee, Micheal Steele, tore into the party he once led in a discussion on MSNBC on Wednesday and argued the GOP doesn’t “get” to move on from Trumpism so quickly.
MSNBC host Joy Reid introduced the segment by saying, “The story is the creeping white nationalism that has infected the party that all of these people support, the party that has invited hate and fear of fellow Americans as guests to Thanksgiving dinner” – referring to former President Donald Trump dining with neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes.
“And until they kick this ideology out and not just slap Trump around a little bit because he lost them elections, I mean, kicked them out. All the prosecutions in the world won’t make any difference,” Reid continued, adding:
Joining me now is Michael Steele, MSNBC political analyst, former chair of the Republican National Committee and host of the Michael Steele podcast. And Jason Stanley, professor of philosophy at Yale University and author of How Fascism Works.
And I do want to start with you, Michael, because you used to be in charge of this party. So you know what it means when the creep begins and the creep began with the Tea Party and you had to wrestle with it. But you actually are somebody with integrity and with a mind of your own. Kevin McCarthy, as somebody who’s got to now steer this ship. Let me just play you what who his new boss is.
“Here’s Marjorie Taylor Greene at Nick Fuentes’s event. So if Nick Fuentes is untouchable. Well, she touched. Here she is,” Reid continued before playing a clip from February of this year.
“Do you know what it’s like to be canceled? And that’s why I’m here to talk to you tonight. I don’t believe anyone should be canceled. I don’t believe in separating people and identities. I don’t believe in separating people and classes. But that’s what the Democrats believe in, because that’s what Marxism is. That’s what communism is,” Rep. Greene says addressing Fuentes’s white nationalist conference.
“And she was introduced by Fuentes at that event,” Reid added.
“Yeah. Which is that’s just a load of crap. It’s total B.S. So she doesn’t want to cancel people and she doesn’t want to break people off into these different classes or whatever. Then why are you calling your fellow Republicans RINOs?” replied Steele, adding:
Why are you, why are you separating those of us who have been stalwarts of Lincoln, Reagan, Eisenhower, Bush Republicanism as something as a pariah?
So, you know, just cut the act. You’re hanging out with the people who represent your values and your interest. When you show up at a Fuentes event that says more about you than it does Fuentes, because we know who he is. We know what that is. So now your embrace of it says a lot about you.
“But here’s the ugly, dirty little rub, Joy, is that the leadership of the Republican Party refuses to reject it, refuses to say that’s not us, MTG, Margaret, whatever, Marjorie Taylor Greene, whatever we want to call you, you’re not going those to those events anymore. You’re going to go out and you’re going to reject that,” Steele continued, adding:
You don’t hear that narrative emerging from within the leadership. They want all of us at this point to fixate on, ‘We’re past Trump, right? We’re no longer doing Trump. Trump. Oh Trump was bad. Oh, this bright, shiny object down in Florida. Let’s focus on that in Governor DeSantis.’
But I’m sorry you don’t get to wipe that stain off your clean white shirt that easily because that’s a deep stain. January 6th was a deep stain. Embracing Fuentes was a deep stain. While you may not have done so directly, the leader of your party did. And as the head of your party and as a leader on the Hill or representing the party across the country at the state level, if you don’t reject that, then that’s you, baby.
“And those of us who reject it have tried to be very clear about that. But here we are,” Steele concluded.
Watch the full clip above via MSNBC
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