MSNBC’s Joy Reid was not the only NBC and MSNBC employee to lament the hiring of former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel, but she may have been the most unintentionally hilarious. The noted election denier used Monday’s edition of The ReidOut to claim that she has no problems with the network hiring Republicans because some of them even guest host her show, the most left-wing show on the country’s most left-wing TV channel.
During a discussion with The Bulwark’s Charlie Sykes and Vanity Fair’s Molly Jong-Fast, Reid declared that her and others’ opposition to McDaniel’s hiring “is not about having not Republicans on. My good friend Michael Steele is the former, also, RNC chair. Who guests hosts this show and my friend.”
It’s nice that Reid and Steele are friends, but simply being friends doesn’t mean you're qualified to host a show. The fact that Steele guest hosts The ReidOut and fills in for other MSNBC progressives means Reid and her colleagues trust him to tell viewers what they want to hear.
Reid was just getting started, “One of the best broadcasters on this network is Nicolle Wallace, who is a brilliant broadcaster and a former Republican, who worked for a president I was literally in a campaign to work against: George W. Bush.”
Wallace also worked for John McCain's, the quintessential moderate Republican that MSNBC claims to love, 2008 presidential campaign, and she still didn’t vote for him.
Still, Reid proceeded, “I wish more Republicans— I want Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney to get right here and come talk to me. The reality is, this isn't a difference of opinion. She literally backed an illegal scheme to steal an election in the state of Michigan.”
Jong-Fast naturally agreed, “Right, it's not about partisanship. We have to be pro-democracy and that's the goal here and it's fine to have your own views, but you can't have your own reality and we all know that the 2020 election was free and fair and she couldn't even say it on Sunday.
While MSNBC is criticizing McDaniel for her 2020 views, it should be noted that CNN once hacked up its own interview of McDaniel to give a false impression of what she said, while MSNBC took the butchered version and portrayed it as real.
Jong-Fast added, “She is still saying there were problems with it. The problems were—was a global pandemic and that’s what happened. A global pandemic. I mean, that was really, I do think, and I would also add, that the road to authoritarianism is paved with people like Ronna, people who repeat the lies they know are not true.”
Reid claims to care about defending the truth against conspiracy theorists, but she spreads election-related conspiracy theories all the time.
Here is a transcript for the March 25 show:
MSNBC The ReidOut
3/25/2024
7:51 PM ET
JOY REID: And look, this is not about having not Republicans on.
MOLLY JONG-FAST: Right.
REID: My good friend Michael Steele is the former, also, RNC chair.
JONG-FAST: Yes.
REID: Who guests hosts this show--
JONG-FAST: Yes.
REID: -- and my friend, one of the best broadcasters on this network is Nicolle Wallace—
JONG-Fast: Yes.
REID: -- who is a brilliant broadcaster and a former Republican, who worked for a president I was literally in a campaign to work against: George W. Bush.
JONG-Fast: Yes.
REID: It is not about that—
JONG-FAST: No.
REID: -- we welcome Republican voi—
JONG-FAST: Right.
REID: I wish more Republicans— I want Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney to get right here--
JONG-Fast: Yes.
REID: -- and come talk to me. The reality is, this isn't a difference of opinion. She literally backed an illegal scheme to steal an election in the state of Michigan.
JONG-FAST: Right, it's not about partisanship. We have to be pro-democracy—
REID: That’s right.
JONG-FAST: -- and that's the goal here and it's fine to have your own views—
REID: Absolutely.
JONG-FAST: -- but you can't have your own reality and we all know that the 2020 election was free and fair and she couldn't even say it on Sunday.
REID: She’s still not saying it.
JONG-FAST: She is still saying there were problems with it. The problems were—was a global pandemic and that’s what happened.
REID: Yeah.
JONG-FAST: A global pandemic. I mean that was really, I do think, and I would also add, that the road to authoritarianism is paved with people like Ronna, people who repeat the lies they know are not true.
