Michael Harriot Profile picture
Sep 20, 2024 22 tweets 7 min read Read on X
“The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” -

Some guy who wrote the Declaration of Independence

Donald Trump:Image
“The liberty of the press is essential to the security of freedom in a state: it ought not, therefore, to be restrained in this Commonwealth.” the oldest functioning constitution in the world

Donald Trump

amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/11/07…
In the first presidential election in the United States a town allowed a group of continental army to vote by mail “as if they were present themselves.”

In many Jim Crow states, Black soldiers quietly realized their votes would be counted if they used absentee ballots

Trump:
Sometimes it’s not his intent. Sometimes it’s just his incompetence.

Remember just before the biggest when he put a guy in charge of the post office who didn’t know what he was doing just before the biggest vote-by-mail election in history? Image
Or remember when Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security advisor had to resign because he ADMITTED lying about working with Russians and working FOR a Turkish dictator?

npr.org/2020/11/25/823…
Or remember when Trump himself just revealed national secrets to the Russians?

washingtonpost.com/world/national…
Remember when the Times had to literally make a chart to show how his campaign manager, son-in-law, daughter, national security advisor, foreign policy advisor & nearly everyone in his administration took money from anti-democratic foreign governments?

nytimes.com/interactive/20…
Remember when he deployed undercover federal DEA and Border Patrol agents to snatch protesters off the streets?

Again, they ADMITTED IT
Image
Image
Remember when that Thomas Jefferson dude was hating on the Constitution because he thought the only way to guard liberty was to include a crazy-ass “bill of rights”

Well Trump is against nearly everything that dude wanted Image
Like remember when he called the moms of nonviolent NFL protesters “bitches?”

Or remember when he secretly sent undercover federal agents to kidnap protesters?
Image
Image
Or remember when he said that Obama’s “religion” was listed as Muslim on his birth certificate and later said he was open to closing mosques and creating a database tracking Muslims?
Remember this?
Or this? Image
I work in the media and I know it’s liberal.

But if a one single 1 of those pro-Trump politicians, judges, cops & election officials had a shred of actual evidence that the 2020 election was rigged, there isn’t a single reporter, outlet or network that wouldn’t break that story
I would, and I despise that MF

Now I admit that I don’t believe America is a democracy. It WANTS to be a democracy.

If it was a democracy, the winner of the popular vote would’ve been president in 2016.

If it was a democracy, the electoral college wouldn’t be a thing
If it was a democracy, people in Black neighborhoods wouldn’t have to wait longer to vote

If America was a Democracy, “black neighborhoods” wouldn’t still be a thing

scientificamerican.com/article/smartp…
If it was a Democracy the filibuster wouldn’t work, a minority of voters wouldn’t control women’s reproductive choices and school shootings would be down because, unlike the right-wing racial oligarchy we have now, we’d have common sense gun laws in a real democracy
Image
Image
If America was a Democracy, this thread wouldn’t exist because, remember Donald Trump has never competed in an election and won the popular vote.

Never.

And I know what the people who move their lips when they read are saying:

“It’s not a democracy, it’s a republic.”
It’s actually a Democratic Republic.

I’m just saying, WHATEVER we have, Donald Trump is a threat to it.

Unless, of course you want to live in a country run by a barely literate authoritarian racist who bankrupted every business & corrupted every person in his orbit
In which case, Donald Trump is no threat at all

Thanks for waiting
This ain’t that
Image
Image

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Michael Harriot

Michael Harriot Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @michaelharriot

Apr 26
This program is based on the "white genocide" conspiracy that Black South Africans are planning to rise up and kill white property owners

It's impossible to explain how infuriating this story is without telling 1 of the greatest stories in all of Black history.

A thread
In 1819, 17-year-old Ben Montgomery was shipped to a forced labor camp in Miss owned by 1 of the richest human traffickers in the state

Joe Davis was a lawyer who essentially owned a slave island. He was called a "planter" even though he didn't plant shit. He just owned slaves
One thing ppl get wrong about history is that they think slaveowners got rich off of slave labor. Some did. But many got land, title & wealth BECAUSE THEY OWNED SLAVES. Thomas Jefferson enslaved 600 people on 10,000 acres. He inherited the ppl and the land. So how'd he get rich?
Read 33 tweets
Feb 8
Bad Bunny should be proud to join the long list of America-hating, Marxist Super Bowl performers whom conservatives hated.

A thread.
About 1/3 of people who watch the Super Bowl are outside the US. In 2026, the NFL will play 9 games in other countries

But according to conservatives, "wokeness" is the only reason why the NFL would have a Spanish-speaking artist headline the halftime show.

Oh, wait: Image
But the halftime show is an AMERICAN tradition that features AMERICAN performers, not foreigners from places like Puerto Rico

@grok is Puerto Rico part of of America?
Read 27 tweets
Jan 9
Oh, they understand the question; they're just laughing at how dumb it is.

But since you asked, I actually know the answer.

Now, I don't want to misquote you, so here is the specific question you asked:

A thread. Image
Now, the first thing we have to acknowledge the inherent whiteness of your question.

You don't get to define the idea of freedom. For instance, there is a reason why most countries don't allow everyone to own guns carte blanche; it's stupid.
Had it not been for slavery, 2nd Amendment wouldn't exist in the federal constitution. Only 4 of the original 13 state constitutions contained a "right to bear arms'

So, by your logic, between 1776 & 1791, MOST Americans were not free.
nytimes.com/2018/05/24/opi…
Read 27 tweets
Jan 6
According to @Grok, Apartheid Elon is literally the biggest spreader of misinformation on Twitter. But I'm willing to give the literal Grammar Nazi a pass on this one because he doesn't know much about HIS OWN history.

A thread.
It began before America existed, when the Favres, a white family (Yes, an ancestor of Brett) moved to the Mississippi Valley to start a family business. They initially worked for France. Then, Spain. They eventually secured a lucrative contract with the US government. Image
Image
Image
Image
The scam was simple. They would move near a indigenous people to trade guns in exchange for allowing white people to live in peace.

Now, EVERY CULTURE fought over territory, including the Choctaw & other natives. So having more guns than a rivals meant more territory.
Read 26 tweets
Dec 4, 2025
While different tribal groups, nations and shared identities always existed, “race” was used to describe a KIND of thing

Burgundy region of France produced a different “race” wines than Chianti Italy.

Until white people got obsessed with it racial classifications Image
In 1669 & 1670, the Va colony passed 2 laws

The first allowed the “casual killing of slaves.”

The second created a distinction between a slave and a servant:

The Black ones were slaves

But Black people are obsessed with race Image
Read 22 tweets
Nov 10, 2025
Someone tagged me on this because I've told it before.

Basically, it WAS Canada Dry, until...

A thread
In the days before WebMD, an enterprising scammer could make a fortune promoting ANYTHING as a health product. If you wanted to stay healthy, you needed to include gin, a few cigarettes and some tonic to your health routine Image
But if a scammer REALLY wanted people to trust a product, they would sell it straight to a pharmacy. Like the dude who couldn't sell his tonic named after Dr. Joseph Lister (who had nothing to do with it). He made a deal pharmacist, & the pharmacist sold it as a health drink
Read 25 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(