Sorry, James Madison and
his wife, Mrs. Madison.
[SOUND] All right.
[SOUND] >> [APPLAUSE]
>> There's the shot heard round the world.
Lizzo, a flutist, a singer, rapper, writer,
is caught up in a bit of a controversy for playing James Madison's crystal
flute there at the Library of Congress and twerking just a little bit.
So, of course right wing heads are exploding.
We're gonna get into all of that.
But really fast, how did she get in this particular moment?
So let's go into that.
James Madison defeated DeWitt Clinton in 1812 to secure a second term in
the White House.
To commemorate his inauguration,
a craftsman from Paris made him a crystal flute.
The flute eventually made its way into the possession of the Library of Congress and
it sat unplayed until this week.
Now there's a new curator, I suppose is the term, or
the head of the Library of Congress, Carla Hayden.
And she invited Lizzo to come in and play because she knows that she plays
the flute, and this would be a cool moment, and it all happened.
Let's get that next moment of her flute playing,
cuz I wanna get to the street of the crazies that happened here.
She played in the DC concert as well.
Let's show that though, cuz this is part of their anger.
I want you to see that, the third side here, you guys.
Let's go to that.
>> [APPLAUSE]
[SOUND]
[APPLAUSE]
>> Now she's got less clothes on outcry.
So here's some of those things.
Matt Walsh is one of those people that was very upset.
He tweeted this out, simply desecrating American history just for the sake of it.
Here's another one from him.
Says, actually it's not just for the sake of it, there's a very clear point here,
to send the message that our heritage and history are meaningless and
that nothing we love or care about has any value.
One more, you guys, from that, and then we'll open this up.
He says, they are outright admitting that this was done as a purposeful
act of degradation, racial retribution against one of our founding fathers.
And yet, I still see some conservatives on here like,
lighten up everyone, I think it was kinda cool.
I'm not a conservative, but lighten up everyone, I think it was kinda cool.
>> [LAUGH] Matt Walsh is such a hilarious racist.
So- >> [LAUGH]
>> [LAUGH] But it's so obvious, right?
So first of all, was everybody talking about James Madison's flute and
then she denigrated it?
Like literally no one knew about James Madison's flute until Lizzo played it.
So that doesn't desecrate it, that actually highlighted it and promoted it.
And by the way, did she spit on the flute?
Well, she did play it, right?
[LAUGH] But what if she like break it in half?
Did she somehow actually physically harm the flute?
No, by the way, does she have a right to be mad at James Madison?
He's the one who wrote the Constitution, Three-Fifths of a Person.
He was theoretically against slaves, but he owned 100 of them.
And at his death, he was forced to sell off some, why?
Cuz of debts, not because of principle.
And at his death he still owned 36 human beings.
So she had a right to play the flute, and
then say what a terrible person James Madison was.
But she didn't do that.
She treated it with respect.
But on the other hand, she's a black female entertainer.
So, just by the very nature of her playing it, in Matt Walsh's world,
he thinks, well, that makes it dirtier, doesn't it?
A black person touched it.
He's a disgusting pig of a person.
>> Not just Matt Walsh, we can add Tim Pool, Steven Crowder, Ben Shapiro, to
the list of people who are choosing this as the latest form of like outrage porn.
But I will say this specifically, cuz I wanna add to what Cenk just said.
I would check out the book, The other Madisons,
Lost History of the President's Black Family, by Bettye Kearse.
And he goes into detail about how James Madison also sexually assaulted the very
human beings that he owned.
So he is not a good human being.
He's someone that you are in the right place to desecrate.
This is a slave owning sexual assaulter, who sexually assaulted his own slaves.
That's nothing in regards to like, that's not what Lizzo did.
Lizzo played it beautifully.
She's incredibly flutist, very, very talented.
It was very respectful, all wonderful.
And at the end of the day, if she wanted to desecrate it,
I think that would have been even better.