MSNBC host Joy Reid is forced to apologize after showing an image of white supremacist Richard Spencer during a segment about the ousted Navy Secretary with the same name
- Joy Reid apologized after MSNBC mixed up ousted Navy Secretary Richard Spencer with the white supremacist leader with the same name
- During ‘Am Joy,’the network showed an image of former Navy Secretary Spencer’s op-ed that was published days after he was fired
- The image included an excerpt from the former Navy secretary’s article alongside white Supremacist and neo-Nazi Richard Spencer
- Former Navy Secretary Spencer was fired last weekend by Defense Secretary Mark Esper
- Spencer was working out a deal with the White House for Eddie Gallagher to retire without losing his SEAL status
- Gallagher was convicted by a military jury in July of illegally posing for pictures with the corpse of an Islamic State fighter in Iraq in 2017
‘AM Joy’ host Joy Reid was forced to issue a correction after MSNBC showed an image of white supremacist Richard Spencer instead of the intended former Navy Secretary with the same name.
‘I want to make a quick correction – it’s a pretty big correction,’ Reid said. ‘Earlier in the segment as we were talking about former Navy secretary Richard Spencer we mistakenly showed the wrong image of white supremacist Richard Spencer. We are very, deeply sorry for that mistake.’
The MSNBC morning show host was doing a segment on the former Navy secretary, who was ousted last weekend after he showed opposition to Donald Trump fighting the military on its decision to strip Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher of his trident.
MSNBC host Joy Reid (pictured) had to apologize Sunday after the network mixed up ousted Navy Secretary Richard Spencer with the white supremacist leader with the same name
During ‘Am Joy,’ MSNBC showed an image of former Navy Secretary Spencer’s op-ed, with an excerpt from the piece, but included an image of the white Supremacist and neo-Nazi Richard Spencer
A few days after he submitted his resignation letter, Spencer published an op-ed in The Washington Post where he accused the president of having ‘very little understanding’ of how the U.S. military works.
Spencer was fired on Sunday by Defense Secretary Mark Esper for working a private deal with the White House to ensure that Gallagher be allowed to retire without losing his SEAL status.
When AM Joy showed an excerpt from Spencer’s opinion piece, it included an image of a man with the same name, Rihcard Spencer – but who is a neo-Nazi who serves as president of the National Policy Institute, a white supremacist think tank.
The white supremacist Spencer was a featured speaker at the now-infamous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017.
‘So that is definitely not a photo of former Navy Secretary Richard Spencer,’ BuzzFeed News social media strategist Josh Billinson posted to Twitter Sunday morning, along with a grab of the gaffe image.
Former Navy Secretary Richard Spencer (pictured) was fired last weekend by Defense Secretary Mark Esper after he worked out a deal with the White House regarding Eddie Gallagher’s status as a Navy SEAL
Spencer denied rumors last month that he was thinking about resigning as Navy secretary due to Trump’s handling of a Navy SEALs case. Instead, he ended up being fired for trying to work out an amicable deal with the White House.
Gallagher was convicted by a military jury in July of illegally posing for pictures with the corpse of an Islamic State fighter in Iraq in 2017. The Navy wanted took away Gallagher’s trident – stripping him of his SEAL status.
Trump ended up weighing in on the case, insisting that he would work against his own military to make sure Gallagher was able to retire without losing his trident – directly going against military leadership who ruled opposite.
Spencer said in his op-ed that he believes Trump had involved himself in the Gallagher case ‘almost from the start,’ because Gallagher’s defense lawyers and others ‘worked to keep it front and center in the media.’