Embattled MSNBC host Joy Reid is being accused of physically threatening a senior colleague from when she was a radio host in Florida.
Andre Eggelletion, former lead host on ‘Wake Up South Florida’, claimed that the ‘evil woman’ created a ‘toxic’ environment while co-hosting and producing the show from 2006 to 2007.
‘It was a very unhealthy work environment because of her attitude. She attacked me on a constant basis while I was there. I was even once threatened with physical violence during a break with her,’ he said to Fox News.
Andre Eggelletion, former lead host on ‘Wake Up South Florida’, claimed that Joy Reid, pictured on MSNBC, created a ‘toxic’ environment while co-hosting ‘Wake Up South Florida’
The threat was said to have been made following a ‘dispute’ that the two had regarding a story that Reid did not want to cover.
‘There was a dispute over it and I told her, ‘Go ahead and call the manager’,’ Eggelletion said he told Reid.
‘I was even once threatened with physical violence during a break with her,’ he claimed of the host, who worked on the show from 2006 to 2007
She allegedly responded: ‘If you ever speak to me like that again I’m coming over there and it’s gonna be me and you.’
Higher ups in the company chastised Reid and told her to change her behavior.
‘It absolutely happened — 100 percent,’ said Lee Michaels, then-national program director for Syndication One which owned WTPS 1080 AM.
‘I talked to the general manager and I told him this has to be dealt with in a very firm manner because it was inappropriate and it just can’t be tolerated.’
Michael claimed that mediation was made even more difficult because Reid had garnered support from her fellow colleagues regarding the matter.
‘It absolutely happened — 100 percent,’ said Lee Michaels, then-national program director for Syndication One which owned WTPS 1080 AM
And at one point, Reid told the general manager that ‘Y’all want me to be his friend. I don’t want to be his mother——g friend.’
Reid apologized in December for homophobic remarks made in a blog post about Florida Gov. Charlie Crist that she called ‘tone-deaf and dumb.’
In the blog, Gist is referred to as ‘Miss Charlie.’
Following the reveal of more controversial blog posts in April, Reid claimed to have been hacked by unknown parties.
‘I genuinely believe I did not write those hateful things because they are completely alien to me. But I can definitely understand based on things I have tweeted and have written in the past why some people don’t believe me,’ she said on ‘AM Joy.’
She later said on her show that she could not prove the hacking, but did not go back on her claim that the FBI was conducting an investigation.
Last week, Reid suggested that the views on the post were hers but from when a time that she didn’t share the same views from. The comments were in relation to a post of John McCain.
‘While I published my blog, starting in 2005, I wrote thousands of posts in real time on the issues of the day. There are things I deeply regret and am embarrassed by, things I would have said differently and issues where my position has changed. Today I’m sincerely apologizing again,’ said Reid.
‘I’m sorry for the collateral damage and pain this is causing individuals and communities caught in the crossfire. To be clear, I have the highest respect for Sen. McCain as a public servant and patriot and wish him and his family the best.’
But Eggeletion and Michaels don’t buy the claim.
‘I do believe she’s not telling the truth about who that person [who wrote the blog posts] was. Maybe she has changed, but back then, that was one evil woman,’ Eggelletion said.
Tamara Gant, a co-host of Reid’s from 2006, said that Reid ‘was nothing but professional and knowledgeable and was excellent in doing her job’
‘She said she doesn’t know who that person is – I find it very hard to believe. Very hard to believe based on my experience with her. Based on her attitudes towards me to this day. I never ever did anything at all to disrespect her, hurt her, I’ve never written or gone public in the last ten years with anything negative about her.’
The host then claimed that Reid referred to Gist as ‘Miss Charlie’ on air, but that clip hasn’t been found.
Michaels claimed that Reid brought up her blog and added that ‘her demeanor inside the radio station complemented what was on the blog. Mean-spirited, very edgy, negative personality in her writing.’
A slew of Reid’s colleagues approached Fox to condemn the two accounts and spoke highly of the way the woman conducted herself in the work place.
Tamara Gant, a co-host of Reid’s from 2006, said that Reid ‘was nothing but professional and knowledgeable and was excellent in doing her job.’
She denied Reid ‘saying, writing or doing anything homophobic or derogatory towards any group.’
‘She was one of the most deferential professionals I’ve ever worked with. Her daily interactions with me and the rest of the staff was of the highest professional regard,’ added WanJira Banfield, a former director of marketing and promotions at station.
She worked with Reid at TheGrio in 2014.
‘She was one of the most deferential professionals I’ve ever worked with. Her daily interactions with me and the rest of the staff was of the highest professional regard,’ added WanJira Banfield, a former director of marketing and promotions at station (pictured in 2014)