Joy Reid Breaks Down in Tears Over MSNBC Firing

Joy Reid is grappling with “anger, rage, disappointment, [and] hurt” as she processes the sudden cancellation of her MSNBC show The ReidOut. The host and political commentator broke down in tears on Sunday, Feb. 23 during a supportive call organized by Win With Black Women.

“I’ve been through every emotion, from anger, rage, disappointment, hurt … feeling guilt that I let my team lose their jobs,” she said in the video, later posted to X (formerly Twitter), saying that she was “not sorry” for criticizing President Donald Trump or for her support of Gaza.

Reid couldn’t help but start crying as she admitted she tries “not to cry on TV” and apologized to the people tuning in.

“We talked about what the president is doing that is subversive to the Constitution, that is injurious to our liberty,” she continued, adding of her support of Gaza, “We as the American people have a right to object to little babies being bombed and and where I come down on that is, I’m not sorry. I am not sorry that I stood up for those things, because those things are of God.”

The commentator that “in the end,” where she lands with her time on The ReidOut, which she started hosting in 2020, “is just gratitude, just pure gratitude.” She reflected on the show’s legacy, “I went hard on so many issues, whether it was the Black Lives Matter, issues of a young baby or a mom or dad that was killed or when we opened up people’s eyes to the fact that Asian Americans were being targeted, and not just Black folks.”

Reid’s former MSNBC colleague Rachel Maddow also was filled with emotion as she condemned the network for ending The ReidOut on Monday, Feb. 24. “She is leaving the network altogether and that is very, very, very hard to take,” Maddow said. “I am 51 years old. I have been gainfully employed since I was 12. I have had so many different types of jobs you wouldn’t believe me if I told you. But in all the jobs that I have had, in all of the years I have been alive, there is no colleague for whom I’ve had more affection and more respect than Joy Reid.”

Maddow continued, “I love everything about her. I’ve learned so much from her. I have so much more to learn from her. I do not want to lose her as a colleague here at MSNBC, and personally, I think it is a bad mistake to let her walk out the door.”