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Join Telegram ChannelMSNBC host Joy Reid suggested on air Monday that former President Trump suffered “consequences” for “promoting” violence during a discussion of the assassination attempt over the weekend.
Reid, who joined MSNBC’s live coverage of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, made the comment after Rachel Maddow said she hoped some level of “sobriety” would emerge around political violence, calling it “not a joke” and “nothing anyone should ever play with.” She, too, seemed to imply that Trump had reaped the whirlwind.
“Violence, among other things, is very unpredictable. Once it becomes part of your political system, you never know which way it’s going to go,” Maddow said. “No one can use it in just one direction, it doesn’t work like that.”
ABC'S GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOUS SAYS TRUMP AND HIS SUPPORTERS CONTRIBUTED TO 'VIOLENT RHETORIC'
Former President Trump, a Republican presidential candidate, is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents during a campaign rally, Saturday, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Reid agreed, recounting the “only time” in her career she felt scared at work, at the 2016 RNC in Cleveland, when armed men “paced” near her booth in a “threatening” manner to “send a message.”
She compared her experience to reports of voter intimidation during the 2022 midterm elections, where a group of armed members of Clean Elections USA were ordered to stay at least 250 feet away from some polling places in Arizona after complaints that people carrying guns and wearing masks were intimidating voters.
“I think about the people who tried to vote in Arizona when gunmen stood outside the polls to send them a message,” Reid said. “If you don’t vote right, I’m here with this gun.”
REPUBLICAN CONVENTION BEGINS 2 DAYS AFTER TRUMP SURVIVED ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
Secret Service monitors former President Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate, on stage during a rally on July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“The idea of political violence that we have been nurturing since then is so dangerous,” she continued. “It is so dangerous that you cannot avoid the consequences, even if you are among those who advocate it.”
Critics of X have condemned Reid for appearing to characterize the Trump assassination attempt as a “what goes around comes around.”
MSNBC PULL'S ANTI-TRUMP CHANNEL 'MORNING JOE' OFF THE AIR FOLLOWING ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
Reid's comments on MSNBC are particularly surprising after the network shelved its staunchly anti-Trump show “Morning Joe” following Saturday's election. assassination attemptA person familiar with the decision told CNN that the show was replaced with live programming, in part out of concern that one of the show's many guests, over the course of a four-hour broadcast, “might make an inappropriate comment on live television that could be used to attack the program and the network as a whole.”
Former President Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate, is removed from the stage during a rally on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
MSNBC's call to keep “Morning Joe” off the air shocked political observers, with some conservatives saying it demonstrated a lack of confidence in one of its most high-profile shows to sensitively cover a tense situation.
An MSNBC spokesperson categorically denied CNN's report.
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Trump was injured in the ear by a bullet of a potential assassin The gunman was shot dead Saturday at his rally in Pennsylvania. The shooter killed one attendee and seriously injured two others before being shot dead by law enforcement. Trump appeared at the Republican convention Monday with a visible bandage over his right ear.
Fox News' Brian Flood and David Rutz contributed to this report.