A former Jewish production assistant for Joy Reid, who up until last week was the host of the MSNBC nightly news program “The ReidOut,” said her former boss went on “a vile antisemitic rant” in 2020, blaming Orthodox Jews for the spread of coronavirus in New York City, according to the New York Post.
“They’re the reason why COVID is spreading across New York,” the former staffer claimed that Reid said during a morning conference call. “They don’t care about COVID or spreading it to others.”
Political commentator Reid, 56, also allegedly said that Orthodox Jews “only care about themselves” and are “in their own bubble.” The Post reported that this claim was unchallenged.
The ex-assistant spoke to the Post anonymously after the network fired Reid in February because “people should know what her character is.”
“I was shocked she called out a group and generalized them,” said the assistant, adding what was more shocking was that the around 20 other people on the call “went along with it as if it’s a normal thing to say.”
The Post said the source was too intimidated to speak out at the time of the comments though later told her boss, then-senior producer Lorena Ruiz, via Slack
Ruiz acknowledged that “Joy can be very careless with her language,” according to messages obtained by the Post. “Luckily, she is generally better on air than on the calls.”
