It looked as though Joy Reid’s “hackers” were at work Tuesday night as Reid not only failed to apologize on The ReidOut for comments saying President Trump and his “radicalized supporters” remind her of “the way Muslims act,” but she was knocked off the air three times. Her reason? Technical “gremlins” were afoot!
Conveniently, the third cut out happened in the show’s last five minutes, leaving weekend afternoon MSNBC Live host Alicia Menendez to finish an interview with Mother Jones’s Ari Berman, close out the show, and toss to All In with Chris Hayes.
For the uninitiated, The Washington Examiner’s T. Becket Adams summarized what went down on Monday (click “expand”):
The cable news host and conspiracy theory enthusiast remarked this week, amid a larger discussion on President Trump and radicalization, that leaders in “the Muslim world" often "encourage their supporters” to commit acts of violence against their enemies.
“When leaders, let’s say in the Muslim world, talk a lot of violent talk and encourage their supporters to be willing to commit violence, including on their own bodies, in order to win against whoever they decide is the enemy," Reid said Monday evening, "we in the U.S. media describe that as, ‘They are radicalizing those people,’ particularly when they're radicalizing young people."
She added, “That's how we talk about the way Muslims act. When you see what Donald Trump is doing, is that any different from what we describe as radicalizing people?”
(….)
The funniest thing about it is that if Reid is made to apologize for her comments this week about Muslims, it will not be because she compared Trump supporters to Islamic extremists but because she compared Islamic extremists to Trump supporters.
How bad was the blowback? Not only did the group Muslim Advocates demand an apology, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN) called Reid out in a tweet.
And yet, Reid didn’t say a word.
The first breakdown happened roughly eight minutes into the show. Wisconsin Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes (D) had finished trashing police officers for having “no transparency” and not be required “to face a true electorate” like elected officials when, after he finished speaking, he was left all alone as Reid was nowhere to be seen or heard.
After about six seconds of Barnes staring into the camera, the screen faded to black and went to a commercial break.
Reid returned by 7:11 p.m. Eastern: “Alright, I want to apologize for the gremlins. That was a weird sort of eventuality but it happened and we are now back. I want to thank Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes. We did lose his shot – and so, the whole shot. So thank you for --- oh, there he is. I really appreciate you being there and sitting through the little story that just happened.”
Sorry, Joy, but your shot went down, not his. But go on!
The show chugged along until 7:38 p.m. Eastern when, after having shown a series of Trump clips from the past five years to accompany her chyron that read “The Conspiracy Theory President,” Reid reappeared but her picture was frozen.
The frozen Reid remained on screen for seven seconds and only went away when Menendez appeared: “Hey, it’s Alicia Menendez. We lost Joy’s shot. We’re going to bring it back in just a moment. Stick with us.”
Reid came back by 7:42 p.m. and made it through a coronavirus segment with New York-Presbyterian Hospital’s Dr. Craig Spencer despite her fear of “technical gremlins” interfering.
Since we’ve already mentioned that there were three breakdowns and we’ve covered two, you know there’s still one more to go.
At 7:52 p.m., Reid stated at the onset of an interview with Berman: “I’m going to bring in Alicia Menendez, my friend and host of a great weekend show on MSNBC. We’re going to have her here as backup in case my shot goes down again because we’re having some gremlins messing with us tonight.”
Those “gremlins” appeared three minutes later when, after Berman’s set of comments, Reid had vanished and left Menendez to close out the show’s remaining five minutes. Here’s how she wrapped:
Alright. Ari Berman, all of you at home, thank you so much for bearing with us. Exactly nine weeks from this very moment, polls will be closing and ballot counting will begin, so make sure your vote counts. Register now, vote early, drop off your absentee ballot at your precinct if you can, and do not forget your masks. That's tonight's ReidOut. I’m All in with Chris Hayes [sic] starts now.
Reid’s Tuesday dumpster fire and her refusal to apologize for what some have deemed Islamophobic comments were made possible by (and thus supported by) advertisers such as Advil, Allstate, Carvana, and Humira.
