Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe went on a wild anti-Trump tirade at a city council meeting on Tuesday that led to him being arrested. On Thursday, he went on MSNBC’s The ReidOut to beat his chest about what a great guy he is for it and accuse anyone who disagrees with him, especially on transgender issues, of being a Nazi.
Host Joy Reid was simply starstruck, “Chris Kluwe has always been that guy, right? You've been an ally to the LGBT community for a long time. You know, you said you risked your, you know, you're, NFL player, you know, and you go, you stood for the rights of LGBTQ folks back then. You're doing it now. What do you make of this fixation that the right and that MAGA has, particularly on trans people? Because it definitely is a fixation.”
It should be said that the Minnesota Vikings insist that Kluwe was released after the 2012 season for poor performance, and looking at his statistics, it is hard to argue with them.
Nevertheless, Kluwe got right into his reductio ad Hitlerum, “It's well, I mean, it's disgusting, and it's straight out of the Nazi playbook. The first people the Nazis went after were the trans community because they thought they would be an easy target, and they could get people to go along with it.”
Of course, Reid wasn’t going to interrupt and say that acknowledging biological reality does not make one a Nazi. Instead, Kluwe kept rolling:
And for MAGA, they tried going after gay people. They're going to continue trying to go after gay people, but they're going to use trans people as the wedge to do it, and we've seen this playbook before. They're using the exact same playbook that they use to try to outlaw same-sex marriage, and so it's up to us to recognize that playbook and to say, ‘No, we're not going to allow you to do that. We're not going to allow you to hurt innocent people who have done nothing wrong, and who just want to be free to live their lives.’
Donald Trump’s secretary of the Treasury is a gay man married to another man and not a single Republican cared enough to vote no on his confirmation.
Nevertheless, Reid continued to be amazed by her guest, “What has been the reaction to your protest besides getting on this show?”
Kluwe then moved from outrageous to cringe, “Overwhelmingly positive. Yeah. Yeah. Right, right. It's overwhelmingly positive on, I'm on BlueSky, which is a great place. I highly recommend BlueSky. It's fantastic. I'm sure on Nazi Twitter they really don't like me, but it's the Nazi site, so I don't really care.”
BlueSky basically exists to be the echo chamber liberals retreat to for their daily self-affirmations. It is basically if MSNBC were a social media website.
Here is a transcript for the February 20 show:
MSNBC The ReidOut
2/20/2025
7:53 PM ET
JOY REID: Yeah, I, you know, I'm struck by the fact that, I told my team when we did our show me today that, you know, Chris Kluwe has always been that guy, right? You've been an ally to the LGBT community for a long time. You know, you said you risked your, you know, you're, NFL player, you know, and you go, you stood for the rights of LGBTQ folks back then. You're doing it now. What do you make of this fixation that the right and that MAGA has, particularly on trans people? Because it definitely is a fixation.
CHRIS KLUWE: It's well, I mean, it's disgusting, and it's straight out of the Nazi playbook. The first people the Nazis went after were the trans community because they thought they would be an easy target, and they could get people to go along with it and for MAGA, they tried going after gay people. They're going to continue trying to go after gay people, but they're going to use trans people as the wedge to do it, and we've seen this playbook before. They're using the exact same playbook that they use to try to outlaw same-sex marriage, and so it's up to us to recognize that playbook and to say, “No, we're not going to allow you to do that. We're not going to allow you to hurt innocent people who have done nothing wrong, and who just want to be free to live their lives.”
REID: What has been the reaction to your protest besides getting on this show?
KLUWE: Overwhelmingly positive. Yeah. Yeah. Right, right. It's overwhelmingly positive on, I'm on BlueSky, which is a great place. I highly recommend BlueSky. It's fantastic. I'm sure on Nazi Twitter they really don't like me, but it's the Nazi site, so I don't really care.