Cross posted to the MRC's NewsBusters blog
On Friday afternoon's Deadline: White House, MSNBC was back to promoting incendiary rhetoric against Republicans as State Rep. Justin Pearson (D-TN) appeared as a guest and claimed that President Donald Trump's push to use the National Guard to cut crime is motivated by "white supremacist ideology" and asserted that ICE agents are committing "terrorism" in blue cities.
MSNBC contributor and disgruntled ex-Republican Tim Miller played the "fascist" card as he warned about an "authoritarian takeover" by Trump.
When Wallace asked State Rep. Pearce his reaction to President Trump's plans to send the National Guard to his home city of Memphis, the Tennessee Democrat began:
Let's just call this what it is -- it is the overreach of the President of the United States into a major black city. This is a perpetuation of authoritarian actions that we have seen happening in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., threatened in Chicago. We are seeing the playing out of white supremacist ideology against black-led and majority black cities all across our country, and it is deeply worrisome. No one here is excited about it or happy about it. It is devastating, it is harmful, it's anti-democratic, and it is un-American.
The MSNBC host followed up by reciting some of the high crime statistics of Memphis, leading Pearce to respond with the worn out liberal claims of crime being caused by poverty and access to guns.
Wallace went along with the Democrat premise that red states are to blame for guns being used for crimes in blue states as she turned to Miller and brought up the murder of Charlie Kirk in Utah and a school shooting that happened the same day in Colorado:
I think it was the mayor of Chicago who said in a live press conference there after Donald Trump had threatened to go into Chicago -- he said -- I think the quote was something like, "Chicago will have a crime problem as long as red states have a gun problem." That problem is in our faces as folks in the political arena and as folks in the news business almost every day obviously with the high-profile shooting this week of Charlie Kirk on the same day there was a school shooting. Back to school ushers in a tragic season of school shootings, and I wonder what your thoughts are about any opportunity in this moment to include a conversation about guns.
It was not mentioned that Colorado is a blue state or that the rifle used to kill Kirk is not a type that would have been covered by the "assault weapons" ban pushed by Democrats.
In one of his responses, Miller was dismissive of troops being used: "It is this authoritarian cosplay, right? It's just like they're putting on costumes, and they want to seem tough as part of this slow-rolling authoritarian takeover. Like, that's what this is all about. It is not about crime. And I think that's just important to say clearly. This is not about solving crime."
When Pearce got to speak again, he repeated his claim of the crackdown being motivated by white supremacy, calling it a "white supremacist game," and accused ICE agents of "terrorism." Here's Pearce:
We have to deal with the systemic root causes of the problems, and black communities should not be the place and the pawns for an authoritarian, wannabe dictator, white supremacist game. And that's what we're finding right now with Donald Trump and Bill Lee. And so our resistance has to be vocal, it has to be clear, it has to be coordinated, and it has to show people that we are serious about defending our democracy. These are not benign acts. They are all intentional in an effort to let us be lulled to sleep as our country moves from a democracy into an authoritarian dictatorship.
This man cares only about his power, keeping it at all cost, and running through any community and hurting all the people as he does it. In D.C., they brought the National Guard, but you know also who came? ICE. We're going to see this repeating over and over again -- the terrorism of our communities. And we have to stand united, and we have to fight back against it.
Transcript follows:
MSNBC's Deadline: White House
September 13, 2025
5:05 p.m. Eastern
STATE REP. JUSTIN PEARSON (D-TN): Let's just call this what it is -- it is the overreach of the President of the United States into a major black city. This is a perpetuation of authoritarian actions that we have seen happening in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., threatened in Chicago. We are seeing the playing out of white supremacist ideology against black-led and majority black cities all across our country, and it is deeply worrisome. No one here is excited about it or happy about it. It is devastating, it is harmful, it's anti-democratic, and it is un-American. So we are organizing, we are meeting, we are determining what our next steps and our actions can be, but we have to be vehemently opposed to the overreach and the overarching actions of this administration into our communities -- especially black, African American communities that are overwhelmingly being targeted by Trump -- by Governor Bill Lee -- and we cannot stand for it.
So, I mean, I am grateful to all the organizers and leaders in our city who are standing up and speaking up and fighting back, but we also have to recognize that today he says that he's sending the National Guard because of crime. In 14 months, it's going to be to protect the midterm elections. In a few years, it's going to be about the presidential election. These overreaches in power should scare all of us because our democracy is at stake.
WALLACE: Representative Pearson, they deploy an issue that, since the beginning of politics is powerful, and it is the issue of crime. And this is just some of the reporting about the statistics. And I just want to ask you to contextualize this for us. This is from Axios. The latest numbers show Memphis had a violent crime rate of 2,501 per 100,000 residents last year -- nearly seven times the national average. An Axios analysis found that Memphis also has the country's fourth highest homicide rate of 40.6 per 100,000 residents -- six times the national average.
What is our message from Memphis about your ability to deal with this without the military?
STATE REP. PEARCE: Does their report mention poverty? Does it mention the lack of economic opportunity. Does the report mention that in our state Governor Bill Lee and the Republican supermajority have passed laws consistently that have weakened gun restrictions and regulations that have made our communities less safe? You can't have a conversation about crime or criminality without talking about poverty, the lack of economic opportunities, the lack of educational resources. And this administration and Governor Bill Lee and the Republican party in Tennessee have consistently prevented Memphis and Shelby County from getting resources to actually deal with the root causes of poverty. And, again, we are seeing the idea that black and crime are somehow commingled. That perpetuates a racist narrative that has been a part of the Trump administration but a part of the American political dialogue for much too long.
(...)
WALLACE: I think it was the mayor of Chicago who said in a live press conference there after Donald Trump had threatened to go into Chicago -- he said -- I think the quote was something like, "Chicago will have a crime problem as long as red states have a gun problem." That problem is in our faces as folks in the political arena and as folks in the news business almost every day obviously with the high-profile shooting this week of Charlie Kirk on the same day there was a school shooting. Back to school ushers in a tragic season of school shootings, and I wonder what your thoughts are about any opportunity in this moment to include a conversation about guns.
TIM MILLER, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think we have to include a conversation about guns. Whether or not it goes anywhere, I don't know, but, you know, this is a uniquely American crisis. It's a uniquely American problem.
(...)
It is this authoritarian cosplay, right? It's just like they're putting on costumes, and they want to seem tough as part of this slow-rolling authoritarian takeover. Like, that's what this is all about. It is not about crime. And I think that's just important to say clearly. This is not about solving crime.
(...)
If you want more cops in Memphis, fund more cops in Memphis and New Orleans. If you want to do an authoritarian takeover and you want to do fascist, you know, costuming, then send in the troops. And I think that we can see what their real priorities are.
WALLACE: Rep. Pearson, your reaction?
STATE REP. PEARSON: Yeah, I mean, look, we do not want to see our community being occupied by the military, and we don't want to see over-policing. And the solution to the problems that are being articulated is not to increase the number of police -- it is to increase the amount of resources to actually reduce poverty -- to actually educate our population, our children, and for the opportunities of the future, and it's to make sure that people have a living wage so that some of the crimes they commit literally for the need to survive do not happen.
(...)
We have to deal with the systemic root causes of the problems, and black communities should not be the place and the pawns for an authoritarian, wannabe dictator, white supremacist game. And that's what we're finding right now with Donald Trump and Bill Lee. And so our resistance has to be vocal, it has to be clear, it has to be coordinated, and it has to show people that we are serious about defending our democracy. These are not benign acts. They are all intentional in an effort to let us be lulled to sleep as our country moves from a democracy into an authoritarian dictatorship. This man cares only about his power, keeping it at all cost, and running through any community and hurting all the people as he does it.
In D.C., they brought the National Guard, but you know also who came? ICE. We're going to see this repeating over and over again -- the terrorism of our communities. And we have to stand united, and we have to fight back against it. But if we do not deal with root causes of poverty, we'll never solve the issues that ultimately lead to criminality. And if we do not deal with state houses that refuse to pass laws because the National Rifle Association, the Tennessee Firearms Association and all the other ones have a hold on Governor Bill Lee -- have a hold on all of these other elected officials like Cameron Sexton. If we do not deal with those root causes in our legislatures, we're going to see the proliferation and the perpetuation of gun violence in the ways that we have as well.