Former MSNBC host Joy Reid says she is finished supporting Democrats unless the party ends its relationship with Israel.
Reid made the comments last week during an interview with writer Ta-Nehisi Coates on “The Joy Reid Show,” which airs on YouTube.
“To me, I, going forward, cannot vote for a Democrat who does not pledge to end this relationship” with Israel, Reid said.
“This relationship needs to end,” she added.
Reid described Israel as “a nuclear-armed expansionist power” and argued that American taxpayers should no longer send money to the country.
“They don’t need our money, and they definitely won’t get my vote,” she said.
According to Fox News, the interview took place Thursday.
The remarks come at a time when opposition to Israel has become increasingly visible among left-wing Democrats, especially since the start of the war in Gaza. But Reid’s criticism of Israel is not new, and neither is the controversy surrounding her comments about Jewish people.
In March of last year, the New York Post reported that a former MSNBC production assistant accused Reid of making comments about Orthodox Jews during the COVID pandemic that the former employee considered anti-Semitic.
The former staffer, who is Jewish, said Reid blamed Orthodox Jews for spreading COVID in New York.
“They’re the reason why COVID is spreading across New York,” the former staffer recalled Reid saying during a conference call. “They don’t care about COVID or spreading it to others.”
The comment was reportedly made during a call with about 20 people on it.
The former employee told the Post that the remark left her stunned.
“No one called her out [saying] ‘Maybe we shouldn’t generalize,’” the staffer said. “Imagine if you said that about any other group of people — even if it were true — saying that any other group didn’t care about COVID?”
She added, “I remember feeling shocked — shocked by her ignorance and how anti-Semitic it sounded.”
The same former employee also described the atmosphere around Reid’s MSNBC show as hypocritical.
“It was a very hypocritical atmosphere. It was completely contradictory,” the person said.
According to the former staffer, Reid often presented herself as an advocate for marginalized groups while allegedly showing little concern when Jewish people were the target of broad generalizations.
The source said Reid’s approach was focused on “speaking up for so-called marginalized groups but had no problem blaming Jews for spreading the virus.”
“It was very targeted racial issues [on the show] but other discrimination went ignored,” the person said.
Reid’s latest comments will likely add to the growing divide inside the Democratic Party over Israel. For years, Democratic leaders largely supported the U.S.-Israel alliance, even when disagreements arose over specific Israeli policies. But that consensus has weakened, particularly among progressive activists, younger voters, and prominent media figures on the left.
Reid is now making her position clear: support for Israel is a dealbreaker.
That puts pressure on Democrats who are already trying to manage tensions between their pro-Israel members, anti-Israel activists, and voters who are deeply divided over the issue. Reid may not hold elected office, but she still has a platform and a following. Her comments reflect a view that is no longer confined to the fringes of online activism.
For Democrats, the question is whether Reid’s position remains a loud minority view or becomes a larger demand from the party’s progressive base.
