THE REID, OUT: MSNBC’s Bitter Race Arsonist Has Her Swan Song

February 24th, 2025 10:31 PM

As reported yesterday, left-wing propaganda outlet MSNBC made significant changes to their programming slate. Most notably, the network canceled The ReidOut, the prime-time vehicle for bitter race arsonist Joy Reid. It was unclear whether she’d come on for a farewell broadcast. But at 7PM Eastern time, we had our answer. Farewell, indeed.

Reid kicked the show off with an unhinged monologue, per longstanding custom, equating federal employees’ struggle to continue working from home with the civil rights movement, and issuing a call to Resistance™ (click “expand” to view transcript):

JOY REID: Happy Monday, everyone. We begin tonight with what I think is the question: when you are in the midst of a crisis and specifically a crisis of democracy, how do you resist- when fascism isn't just coming, it's already here? So what, if anything, can you do about it? Well, for one thing, you can try to learn from history. From what people in this situation, in countries around the world and in America have done before. As my friend Rachel Maddow always says, history is here to help. America hasn't always been a free country for everyone, and we've had resistance movements from Day One. From enslaved people fighting their captivity. Shout out to Harriet Tubman, who was a 92 percenter before 92 percenting was cool, and even taking up arms during the Civil War. To the Women's Movement and the Workers’ Rights Movement and the Stonewall Gay Rights Movement. They've all been versions of the fight to make this a free country for everyone, and to have a true multiracial democracy. And that is history's most important lesson, right? That the most important thing, the first rule is to fight back, to never stop resisting. Do not obey in advance, as Tim Snyder put it. Do not take the knee(SIC), to throw in a Game of Thrones reference. Even if it's scary or uncomfortable or inconvenient, just keep saying no, or finding creative ways to say no, in small ways and large. Medgar Evers said, “do not shop where they will not employ you.” Doctor King championed the Montgomery bus boycotts to become the leader of the Civil Rights movement. The labor rights movement shut down factories and hobbled industries to win the 40-hour workweek that you enjoy right now. And more recently, to ensure the right of workers to work from home during Covid. People have marched against the Vietnam War and the war in Iraq, and against the decimation of Gaza using our tax dollars. You don't always win every battle. But the whole thing is about resisting. 

That whole diatribe led to a segment on the five-point emails that federal workers were required to send, in which they were to report their activities for the week:

REID: But the email presented Americans with one of the other really perfect responses to fascism: ridicule. Journalist Alison Gill, from a Substack called The Breakdown, posted some of the best fictional responses that appeared online in response to the question: what would you really like to say in your response? Some of the best included, Number one: kept refreshing email to see if I was fired or placed on administrative leave. Number two: tried to concentrate over the sound of colleagues cleaning out their desks. Number three: accommodated the request for access to classified data by “big balls.” Number four: had a scotch. Number five: researched countries I can relocate to. Another one said, drank an Old Fashioned. Number two: took a nap. Number three: delighted coworkers with sarcasm. Number four: dropped a tray of chocolate covered pretzels in the conference room before the town hall. Number five: put Black History Month stickers on bulletin board and gave out emotional support dumpster fires. And last but not least, number one: executed low productivity tasking. Number two: identified opportunities to transition to high productivity tasking. Number three: developed plan for DOGE to eff off. Number four: all the TEAMS meetings. Number five: responded to meaningless emails about task execution. The point being, other than it being hilarious that this regime that we find ourselves living under is producing massive chaos and trauma in the lives of federal workers and in the country. Just look at this latest round of protests at Tesla dealerships, at town halls. America is resisting in large ways and small. The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has seen a 50% drop in ticket sales. Drag queens are showing up to protest outside. America is saying no to Elon Musk running us. We do not want him in charge. Period. 

Reid appears to be basing this rejection of DOGE efficiencies on recent polling. I’ll remind you that the polling also had Kamala Harris winning the presidential election, and it is likely that the same dynamics are at play here. 

Fast forward to the first panel discussion of the evening, and Reid insinuates that President Donald Trump is held captive by a South African fascist junta:

REID: Some of the things that Elon Musk is doing, and it is notable to me that the people leading this movement are largely south African, white south Africans, people who had a fascist government that they grew up under in South Africa, which was the apartheid government, and they are taking and exploiting their politics here. Peter Thiel. Uh, you know, Elon Musk. There’s a bunch of them, like a little claque of them, and they have Donald Trump, right?

I’m convinced that had Reid been allowed to finish out the week, she might have indulged in a “Kill the Boer” chant- or found a way to play an extended clip of Julius Malema doing likewise. She certainly did her part to instigate such chants:

REID: I mean, the reality is when you say we have to fight for our democracy, nobody knows what that means. Most people do not know what that means. They don't sit around with a textbook figuring it out. But people- you know what people understand. Elon Musk payin’ himself and the hood not getting any money. 

PAUL BUTLER: Exactly right. 

REID: And that's what's happening. He's literally- people were angry that Ukraine was getting money that they translated in their mind was not going to the hood. You know who’s takin’ money from the hood? Elon Musk!

BUTLER: Exactly right.

REID: It’s a simple argument and maybe somebody should make it.

This type of despicable race arson is on-brand for Reid and, as our friend Ed Morrissey wisely noted:

The show wound down with a primetime panel, wherein each host took turns telling Reid how much they loved her and mourning her dismissal, which creepily ended with Rachel Maddow threatening to haunt Reid.

REID: My friends. Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace, Lawrence O'Donnell. I could not respect or love people more than I love you all. And one of the great things about MSNBC is that it's actually genuine. Like we actually all really dig each other, and we think that each other are great, and we talk and we share and we learn from each other. And I've learned so much from you. I love you guys.

RACHEL MADDOW, NICOLLE WALLACE: Thank you.

LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: Thank you for everything you've taught us. Joy. Thank you very much. 

REID: Thank you. I love you all. Thank you.

MADDOW: I've got a lot more to learn from you. I'm planning on haunting you for the rest of your days, Joy Reid. You’ll never get away.

REID: I'm obsessed with ghosts. It’s very convenient. Keep Haunting. Bye.

That was, tonally, the end of The ReidOut. The show actually ended in the following segment, with Reid doing the classy thing. Whereas we expected her to launch into one final tirade, she thanked her crew and signed off. 

Reid won’t be gone for long. Nonetheless and for the time being, she’s gone from cable TV and our political discourse will be better off for it.