MSNBC’s Joy Reid: Close presidential race shows ‘great amount of racism and anti blackness’ in US

MSNBC’s Joy Reid said late Wednesday that “there’s a great amount of racism and anti-blackness” in the U.S., with the prime-time host adding it is “aggravating” and “disappointing” the results of the presidential election are so close and President Trump faces no “repudiation.”

“I think partly because we knew the red wave was a thing, the red mirage, I should say, we all knew it was coming,” Reid said to host Rachel Maddow. “In the moment, it’s aggravating. And I think partly — and I said this last night — I do think it’s because we’ve been reporting for five years, Rachel, about Russia … undermining our national security, the impeachment, the racism, the Nazis, all of it and then COVID laying on top of it, [it] felt like a repudiation was coming.”

“I think even though we intellectually understand what America is at its base, right?” she said. “That there is a great amount of racism, anti-blackness, anti-wokeness, this idea that political correctness is some scheme to destroy white America, right?”

“We know what this country is, but still part of you, I think part of your heart says, you know what, maybe the country’s going to pay off all of this pain, the children that were stolen, with a repudiation. And as the night wore on and I realized and it sunk in, OK, that’s not happening, we are still who we thought, unfortunately,” Reid added.

“It’s disappointing. And I emerged from this disappointed,” she continued.

The comments from Reid, who sparked considerable backlash after calling Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas “Uncle Clarence” early Wednesday in what appeared to be an “Uncle Tom” reference, came as votes were still being counted in Nevada, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia and Democratic nominee Joe Biden was within six electoral votes of capturing the presidency.

Biden currently leads Trump in electoral votes, 264-214, with the former vice president only needing to take Nevada to become the nation’s 46th president.

Many polls showed the former vice president well ahead of the president going into Election Day, fueling some predictions of a decisive Biden victory, as well as Democrats taking control of the Senate and expanding their majority in the House.