Former MSNBC host Joy Reid was blindsided by Piers Morgan's questions about whether she wrote the series of homophobic posts that were unearthed from her old blog in 2018, in a contentious interview published Thursday.
"Now you're not at MSNBC," Morgan asked. "Now you're on your own doing your own thing, and you don't have to worry about repercussions and stuff. Are you prepared to finally come clean and just admit that was your blog and you did say those things?"
"You know, Piers, I might have known that you would use this opportunity and interview and that this was your purpose, right?" Reid began. "This is your purpose and that's fine. This is your show, and you can do whatever you like. You know, I could sit here and go on and on and fight with you about your strange, weird obsession with Megan Markle, but I won't do that because that would be rude."
"Happy to, if you want to!" Morgan interjected.
JOY REID ACCUSES 'CHEAP' PIERS MORGAN OF AMBUSHING HER IN NEW INTERVIEW
"We can do that as well," Reid remarked.
Reid insisted that someone she didn't know had access to her site for years but that she was "willing to take responsibility for anything that was on that site."
"Did you say those things?" Morgan interrupted.
"Not to my-" Reid began.
"Come on ,Joy, you said them. You know you did," Morgan said as the two began talking over each other.
"The reason that you are trying to go here is that you are trying to defend the idea that Moms for Liberty and these other organizations can take books that are not pornography-" Reid said.
"No, no, I'm just trying to see whether you like to hold people to account," Morgan said.
"And I held myself to account-" Reid argued.
"I'm just trying to ask you questions about you being held to account," Morgan finished.
Reid continued to apologize for everything on the blog, without clarifying if she wrote the comments, and returned to criticizing the Moms for Liberty political group for targeting controversial LGBTQ-themed books in schools.
Morgan disagreed with Reid's comments on Moms for Liberty and returned again to the topic of Reid's controversial blog posts. He pointed out that despite her support for the LGBTQ community, her blog posts had a very different message.
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"I'm talking about you posting on your blog that you wouldn't watch 'Brokeback Mountain' because you don't want to see two male characters having sex," Morgan said. "'Does that make me homophobic? Probably. Most straight people cringe at the sight of two men kissing.' Your words, not mine, Joy."
"And your point is?" Reid said.
"That maybe that makes you a bit of a hypocrite when you're taking the position of being an ally for the LGBTQ community," Morgan said. "And actually the best way to handle it, I would argue, is just to say, 'You know what? Actually, I did write that at the time. They're not my views now. I've learned. I've evolved. I've moved on.' Trying to pretend even now that you didn't write it is preposterous. And I think you know that."
Reid reiterated that she takes full responsibility for everything on the site and felt "deeply apologetic" for the things that hurt people. She added that her views are clearly different from what was written in the past blog posts.
After claiming in 2018, when her blog's old posts resurfaced, that the site had been hacked, Reid eventually admitted that could not be substantiated, and said, "The person I am now is not the person I was then."
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Reid apologized but, while taking responsibility for the content, she repeatedly suggested she was not the actual author of some of the offending posts.
At the time, Reid was not formally reprimanded by MSNBC. The progressive network rallied behind her, saying the posts are "not reflective of the colleague and friend we have known at MSNBC for the past seven years. Joy has apologized publicly and privately and said she has grown and evolved in the many years since, and we know this to be true."
Reid was fired by MSNBC earlier this year.
