Podcaster, best-selling author and former MSNBC host Joy Reid isn’t holding back about an interview with British TV host Piers Morgan that melted down faster than a snowball on a steamy summer day in Georgia, accusing Morgan of a “race-baiting ambush” during their conversation.
Reid, on her Joy Reid Show on YouTube, Wednesday before the interview with Morgan aired Thursday, went on the offensive, calling him a “rabid, thirsty little troll desperate for attention” who is obsessed with the topic of race.
Reid said she agreed to talk with him before the launch of her new YouTube show last month and that in an email, he promised a “free-flowing conversation covering several topics in her wheelhouse, including the Trump administration, Elon Musk establishing a new political party, ICE raids, and news of the day. We’d also like to discuss her leaving MSNBC and setting up her new online venture,” according to news reports of how Reid described the email.
“OK, sounds compelling,” she said. “But it turns out that is not what the interview was about. Instead, Piers used a 45-minute interview to ambush me, mainly about his favorite subject, race.”
“Specifically, why Black people like me talk so much about race, especially when it comes to Donald Trump, which is ironic, right? In bringing up the fact of race and Donald Trump, that is in fact, Piers literally talking about race,” Reid added.
Reid says while she didn’t expect him to stick to the topics he said he would, she also was not prepared for him to bring up a controversial blog post from 15 years ago or to ask her to comment in real time on a conservative host’s statements about her stoking racial hatred.
In a segment of Morgan’s interview with her, he played a clip of Reid crying after she was fired from MSNBC, then he showed another clip from an interview she did with Marc Lamont Hill, where she discussed her concern over Israel’s war in Gaza.
“Now, Joy, I mean look, let’s be honest, I don’t think you were fired after all those years because of your skin color or because you’re a Black woman,” Morgan told Reid. I think you were fired because your show just got increasingly unpopular. It happens all the time in TV,” he continued in a patronizing tone of voice.
“That’s why you got let go. Why play the race card?” he asked.
“First of all, I love the fact that ‘you play the race card’ is your version of the race card. You literally are so fixated on trying to racialize conversations with me, Piers, I find it actually quite charming,” Reid tried to respond when Morgan began talking over her.
“The bottom line is you take an entire conversation that I had with Marc Lamont Hill and pick the bits that you can racialize because this is your shtick and I get that this is your shtick,” she said.
“You racialize everything, Joy,” Morgan countered.
“I get it and I understand this is your shtick, Piers, and listen,” Reid continued as Morgan began laughing wildly, accusing Reid of a racialized shtick.
“It’s not my shtick. It’s your shtick,” Morgan insisted.
“It is your shtick and everyone knows it is,” Reid said as Morgan argued over her.
“It is so interesting to me that you, yourself as a white European, find that when people of color talk about race, that you believe is racializing conversations, but when people like you fixate on ‘Well, Barack Obama was a Black president,’ why don’t you object to that? That is racializing a conversation about the former president of the United States,” she said when she could finally get a word in edgewise.
Morgan admitted Thursday that the conversation “did not go well” in a post on social media.
“In fact, it went so badly for her that she’s already gone public about how terrible it was, and I am. Apparently, I’m obsessed with race & identity politics,” he said in a seemingly joking manner.
“So typical of an old white guy to dismiss the obvious sexism and racism that culminated in her termination. She is obviously a professional and there is literally no other reason she would have been fired,” an X user commented.
“Piers played the racist card first and then blamed Joy Reid for it,” another user said.
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