On Thursday’s episode of The ReidOut on MSNBC, “Country Over Party” creator and regular MSNBC guest Matthew Dowd slandered Republicans who commonly utilize the term “America first” as a guiding concept when it comes to how government resources should be spent. Dowd believes that America first is code for democracy last.
Dowd said the following during a segment on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to a joint session of Congress, in which several Republicans did not greet the foreign leader with the degree of applause that presenter Joy Reid demanded:
“When Republicans say America first, which is what they constantly kinda try to say. What they really mean is democracy last. That’s really what they mean when they say America first. It’s not about our principles anymore and the narrative and common story that all of us have shared about a constitution and the will of the people and a government by and for the people. It is about an ability to push through whatever you want by whatever means necessary in this.”
Of course, the former Republican had zip to offer in the form of solutions but instead insisted that the GOP is somehow inline with Putin. Saying they are, “in sync now with Vladimir Putin who espouses basically the exact same things which is I’m gonna hold power for power’s sake and it doesn’t matter who I run over or what I do or what country I invade.”
Getting in another shot at his former party, Dowd ended by crying that “Ronald Reagan would be shocked at what’s going on.”
Transcript
MATTHEW DOWD: Again, I think it’s a fundamental thing. When Republicans say America first, which is what they constantly kinda try to say. What they really mean is democracy last. That’s really what they mean when they say America first. It’s not about our principles anymore and the narrative and common story that all of us have shared about a constitution and the will of the people and a government by and for the people. It is about an ability to push through whatever you want by whatever means necessary in this.
And so it doesn’t surprise me that they’re in sync now with Vladimir Putin who espouses basically the exact same things which is I’m gonna hold power for power’s sake and it doesn’t matter who I run over or what I do or what country I invade. If I can get what I want, that’s what I want. That’s what the Republican Party has become. It’s the least of which it’s not anything close to the last two Bushes, but it’s a party that they used to claim Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan would be shocked at what’s going on.
JOY REID: And he’d be run out of the party. He’d be considered a RINO.
DOWD: He couldn’t join—If Ronald Reagan ran today in the Republican nomination, Ronald Reagan would probably finish fifth or sixth in a Republican primary.
REID: 100 percent. Easily. Easily.