Joy Reid has long been critical of fired Fox News star Tucker Carlson, so it’s no shock that on Wednesday, she took some time at the top of her MSNBC show to talk about the latest bombshell revelation about him : A leaked text in which Carlsen used a racist phrase and admitted to fantasizing about violence against his political enemies.
Addressing Carlson directly, Reed said, “It turns out you are indeed as repulsive a racist as the person you once played on TV.”
But, she reminded viewers, the disclosure shouldn’t come as a surprise, as Carlson’s “odd, 19th-century eugenics talk” featured heavily on a program she described as “white grievances.” show of records”.
For context, on Tuesday night, The New York Times published a text written by Carlson the day after the January 6 rebellion, which it said appeared in redacted form during discovery in the Dominion Voting System defamation suit. In the text, Carlson used violent language, and expressed racist slurs, as well as a willingness to support those who “surrounded a child of Antifa and started killing people alive.”
But it also contained a racist observation of the violence he was discussing. “It was three against one, at least. To jump a man like that is plainly disrespectful. That’s not how white men fight,” Carlson wrote.
According to the Times, the discovery of this text was the beginning of a chain of events that led to Carlson being fired on April 24, despite his “Tucker Carlson Tonight” being Fox News’ top-rated prime-time show. Read more about it here.
At the top of Wednesday’s episode of “The Read Out,” Reid noted that the incident demonstrates how “white nationalist receipts can get you fired. Even from Fox.”
“The texts reveal that to Fox and the man who made ‘white replacement’ doctrine standard in the Republican Party,” Reed said.
Reed then read from the text, taking special care to emphasize the point that Carlson said “that’s not how white men fight.”
“Did you get that? ‘Not how white guys fight.’ All right,” she said. “Such weird, weird, 19th-century eugenics talk should come as no surprise to anyone who’s seen what’s arguably a record display of white grievance.”
Reid’s portrayal of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” as a haven for “white replacement” talk was certainly accurate. Carlson talks about racist conspiracy theories so much that The New York Times declared He hosted “what may be the most racist show in the history of cable news”. Until last month, of course.
Watch the clip from “The Read Out” at the top of the page.