Former MSNBC host Joy Reid announced Thursday that she will no longer vote for Democratic candidates who do not commit to ending the U.S. relationship with Israel. Reid expressed this stance during an interview on her podcast with author Ta-Nehisi Coates, stating, "I, going forward, cannot vote for a Democrat who does not pledge to end this relationship."
Reid described the relationship as one that "needs to end," characterizing Israel as a "nuclear armed expansionist power." She asserted that Israel "don’t need our money, and they definitely won’t get my vote."
During the conversation, Coates mentioned that some Arab-Americans and Muslim-Americans voted for Donald Trump in 2024 out of dissatisfaction with the Biden-Harris administration. Reid’s comments come after her MSNBC show was canceled in February 2025 as part of a programming reorganization. MSNBC subsequently separated from NBC and rebranded as MS NOW.
Reid also recently voiced strong criticism of former President Donald Trump, whom she referred to as an "orange a–hole" and a "wannabe king." She made these remarks at a "Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert for the First Amendment" event, where she decried Trump's influence on the media landscape. She listed several incidents involving media figures and networks, suggesting a consolidation of American journalism driven by a few billionaires. "This is corporate media on its knees," she stated at the event. "A handful of billionaires consolidating local stations, newspapers, national networks, turning American journalism into what they hope will become a US version of North Korea."
In a separate interview earlier this month, Reid stated she could no longer support the New York Giants after their quarterback introduced Donald Trump on stage. She told podcast host Jack Cocchiarella that Trump is "not a normal president" and "not an American president," comparing him to a monarch during the 250th anniversary of the U.S. separation from British rule.