MSNBC host Jen Psaki alleged during her show “Inside with Jen Psaki” that the Republican Party is “trying to recruit” Muslims against transgender people.
During her segment, the former White House press secretary claimed the strategy to turn minority groups against each other was from an “old GOP playbook.” Psaki claimed this move came from former President Richard Nixon’s “infamous southern strategy.”
This move, Psaki said, was used during Nixon’s “campaign for president in 1968,” in an attempt to win the votes of “white Southerners” who may have otherwise voted for Democratic politicians. The GOP played “to their fears of African Americans and the civil rights movements,” said Psaki.
“The GOP is trying to recruit Muslim Americans, a community that makes up less than 2% of the U.S. population, against another tiny marginalized group of Americans, transgender people,” said Psaki on Sunday.
We're noticing the reemergence of an old ploy straight from the GOP playbook, only this time the party has a new target…@jrpsaki breaks it down. pic.twitter.com/wZ55u20476
— Inside with Jen Psaki (@InsideWithPsaki) July 2, 2023
“And it worked. By pitting one group of Americans against another, the GOP successfully managed to split off southern whites from the Democratic Party,” said Psaki. “Now decades later, the right-wing is reviving that same playbook. This time with Muslim Americans and trans people.”
Psaki pointed out how during the Republican primary in 2011, Muslim Americans had been “designated as public enemy number one.”
During this time, Republican presidential candidates such as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich were in favor to ban Sharia or Islamic law and opposed the idea of an Islamic center being built near Ground Zero in New York City, according to CNN.
“To them, the imaginary prospect of Sharia law in this country was scarier than, gun violence, climate change and more important to discuss than say, millions of people who didn’t have health care,” said Psaki, continuing on to show clips from GOP candidates discussing their opposition to Sharia law.
Psaki also pointed out the time former President Donald Trump had called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” while he was running for president in 2015.
“The left wants to scare Muslims into accepting its indoctrination of our children in exchange for a smile and pat on the head,” said Ismail Royer, the Director of the Islam and Religious Freedom Action Team with the Religious Freedom Institute, in an interview with Fox News in response to Psaki’s remarks.
Royer told Fox News the Democratic Party portrays Muslims as not having “agency or intelligence” and can’t fathom that Muslim Americans have “weighed the bargain they offer us and rejected it.”
Psaki’s thoughts are similar to those said during a segment last month of “All in with Chris Hayes” with Mehdi Hasan and guest Wajahat Ali.
.@WajahatAli warns his fellow Muslims against falling for GOP tactics to draw them into attacks against the LGBTQ community.
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) June 20, 2023
"Aligning with right wing mobs that have manufactured fear and pandering against our communities is not the way." https://t.co/UIInSm7Lc4 pic.twitter.com/Yvx0NDDAnw
“Muslims who are watching, you need to know that the same forces who are using us against LGBTQ have turned on us, and will turn on other people of color and immigrants,” said Ali.