Rachel Maddow Sounds Off on Joy Reid’s MSNBC Exit

Rachel Maddow has spoken out against the major changes coming to MSNBC, calling the exit of anchor Joy Reid a “bad mistake” during the Monday, Feb. 24 episode of The Rachel Maddow Show.

“Joy Reid’s show, The ReidOut, ended tonight. And Joy is not taking a different job in the network. She is leaving the network altogether and that is very, very, very hard to take,” the longtime MSNBC host 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 went on, “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.”

Reid’s final show aired the same evening and featured farewell messages from Maddow, Nicolle Wallace, and Lawrence O’Donnell after Reid warned her audience to remain vigilant and advocate against fascism in the days to come.

Maddow then said, “Well, first I want to say that I love you, Joy, and that I am bereft that The ReidOut is ending. I really I just can’t even I sort of can’t get beyond that. So I want to say that.” She went on, “But that is also part of what I think I have to say to the country about this moment, which is find people who you respect and trust and love and make common cause with them and help, you know, help yourself by learning from them and help them by standing up for them. And I think we have tried to do that.”

Wallace then equated Reid’s departure to “losing a limb,” continuing, “And I think that my reaction to the end of The ReidOut and your departure is despair. And the only thing that chips away at that for me, is that despair is the autocrat’s tool. It’s their most effective weapon. It costs nothing. It’s easy to deploy, it’s contagious. And then it puts in motion all the actions they want. Hopelessness. Isolation. Exasperation. Giving up. And so the only reason I will not wallow in what I feel about you leaving is, is because I think that’s what they want.”

Reid’s time slot will eventually be filled by a panel show featuring The Weekend‘s Symone Sanders Townsend, Michael Steele, and Alicia Menendez, but until then will feature a series of different hosts on a rotating basis.