A resurfaced tirade from former MSNBC host Joy Reid reportedly gained traction on social media Sunday, drawing renewed scrutiny for her long history of inflammatory racial rhetoric. In the clip, Reid accuses America’s Founding Fathers of committing genocide and dismisses the American Revolution as nothing more than a tax dispute driven by “entitlement.”
Reid was fired by MSNBC in February as part of a sweeping overhaul after the network’s ratings collapsed following Kamala Harris’s 2024 defeat. Comcast later spun off MSNBC, CNBC, USA, E!, Oxygen, SyFy, and other channels, and MSNBC rebranded as “MSNOW” in November in an effort to salvage viewership.
In the resurfaced rant, Reid appeared to take the side of King George III while launching into a denunciation of the nation’s founders. “This nation was founded by killers who slaughtered 90 percent of the indigenous people,” Reid said. She continued by accusing early Americans of being “leeches” who “glommed off the indigenous who taught them how to survive… and then murdered them and took all their land.” She went on to claim the Founders “felt entitled to own other people and they didn’t even want to pay taxes on it, so they decided to have a whole war with Britain.”
Reid’s remarks fit a longstanding pattern. During her show on MSNBC, she routinely targeted conservatives with racially charged commentary. On Nov. 5, 2024, Reid blasted “white women” for failing to vote for Harris, saying, “Black voters came through for Kamala Harris, white women voters did not.” She also attacked President Donald Trump on her Substack livestream, declaring he “is the physical embodiment of all of America’s sins.”
Her program also gave Democrats a platform to push their own divisive narratives. Reid interviewed Rep. Ilhan Omar, who downplayed the flight of Somali nationals involved in massive welfare fraud schemes that siphoned over a billion dollars from Minnesota taxpayers. Reid likewise allowed Stacey Abrams to deride Vice President J.D. Vance as a “DEI graduate” during a January segment.
Despite the drumbeat of controversy — or perhaps because of it — Reid consistently struggled to attract viewers. On Feb. 19, 2025, she drew just 922,000 viewers, trailing even fellow MSNBC host Chris Hayes at 973,000 and far below the numbers of Lawrence O’Donnell or Rachel Maddow. As MSNBC’s ratings cratered, Reid’s penchant for polarizing commentary became a liability the network could no longer ignore.
Reid’s resurfaced anti-Founders rant has only reinforced critics’ concerns that many liberal commentators have embraced a narrative that vilifies America’s origins while excusing the failures of the modern progressive movement. Reid’s attempt to paint the American Revolution as an act of “entitlement” — and to portray the Founders as genocidal oppressors — stands in stark contrast to the view held by millions of Americans who see the nation’s founding as an imperfect but extraordinary achievement in human liberty.
Now off the air, Reid remains active online, but the resurfaced video is once again spotlighting why MSNBC — now MSNOW — saw her as part of its ratings problem, not its future.
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