Former MSNBC host Joy Reid on Tuesday renewed scrutiny of President Donald Trump’s injuries from what she called an "alleged" assassination attempt during a Pennsylvania rally last year, saying the public has been left without clear medical records or explanations.
Reid appeared on former colleague Katie Phang’s YouTube channel and criticized how the media has covered Trump’s health in recent days, saying reporters have not pressed for documentation about the incident. "He's got these magical doctors who claimed that he was shot in the ear, but his ear, I guess, grew back," Reid said. "He had a Dukal bandage on one minute, no bandage the next. We can’t get a medical record from this alleged assassination. He was supposedly shot. We have nothing. We’ve got no—we we can’t even ask."
Phang interjected during the interview, asking, "Where are the investigative records? One day, he slapped a Maxi Pad on his ear. The next day, the ear is totally fine." Reid replied, "It’s fine! I remember being in mainstream media where we both used to work, saying, ‘Isn’t it odd that we’ve never asked for his medical records?’ And I got in trouble for that."
Reid, who previously hosted MSNBC’s "ReidOut," framed her remarks as questions about transparency rather than definitive assertions about the episode. She repeatedly referred to the 2024 incident as an "alleged" assassination attempt while criticizing both the Trump medical team and mainstream outlets for what she described as gaps in reporting.
The comments come amid renewed public and media attention on the president’s health and the details of incidents that occurred during his 2024 campaign. Reid’s interview did not produce new medical documentation; she said the records remain unavailable to the public and contended that journalists have not pursued them rigorously.
Reporting about the Pennsylvania rally in 2024 included accounts that Trump was struck and treated for an injury to his ear. Reid’s remarks focused on apparent inconsistencies in visual coverage and the lack of publicly released medical or investigative records that would detail the nature of any wound or treatment. The interview underscores ongoing debates about access to medical information for public officials and the role of news organizations in seeking and publishing such records.
Representatives for Trump did not provide medical records during the interview and have generally defended the information released about his health through statements and summaries from medical advisers. News organizations vary in their standards for requesting and publishing private medical documents, and legal protections for patient privacy can limit what becomes public without voluntary release or legal compulsion.
Reid’s renewed questioning of the 2024 episode drew attention from outlets and social media users across the political spectrum, reflecting persistent skepticism among some commentators about official accounts of high-profile incidents. Her appearance on Phang’s channel marks a notable instance of a former mainstream cable news host using an independent platform to raise questions about a sitting president’s medical history and the coverage it has received.