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Is Joy Reid Homophobic? (No.)

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OK. Let’s talk about Joy Reid. As many know, an amateur sleuth on Twitter who has previously unearthed some anti-gay remarks about Florida politician Charlie Crist has supposedly unearthed old blog posts right-leaning websites like Mediaite are publishing. The posts are supposedly screenshots of Reid’s old blog, in which she supposedly wrote anti-gay remarks, and which she says she shut down in 2011.

Reid also says that the newly unearthed anti-gay posts are not hers, that she did not write them. She also says she was hacked, and hired a cyber security expert who issued a report that states her blog was breached.

NBC News reportedly is not taking Reid off the air, and is allowing the law enforcement process to take place – Reid says she notified law enforcement last year when she found the fraudulent blog posts.

There are also some tweets that some are calling anti-gay, anti-trans, anti-LGBT, homophobic, transphobic, etc.

On the right, some are demanding NBC/MSNBC fire Reid, some are asking about an advertiser boycott, some are insisting she be punished – mostly because the left has been so effective at holding actual wrong doers accountable. The countless corrupt politicians/political operatives/fundraisers, etc. associated with the RNC and the Trump team have come under scrutiny from the left because of the wrongdoing, immoral, and possibly illegal acts that we see unfold literally every day.

The right sees this as payback.

But let’s do a few things. First, as far as the blog posts are concerned, Reid says she did not write them. A security expert says her site was breached. And she’s contacted law enforcement. Also, former Salon editor-in-chief Joan Walsh, who previously published Reid’s work from her old blog, says “none of us ever saw the kinds of homophobic posts she’s now accused of.”

“Also, to my knowledge, the offensive posts had no comments on them, while the posts she acknowledges had some lively comments debates,” Walsh adds.

Others have spoken out in support of her and her work:

We also should look at who’s pushing the “Joy Reid is a homophobe” lie:

I have no idea if Joy Reid wrote the blog posts Mediaite supposedly claims she did, and I’m not going to focus on them, as many others have.

But, the credibility of those who are “unearthing” these likely fraudulent blog posts should be questioned at this point, not Reid. She says they’re not hers, she was hacked, she has an expert supporting that statement, she contacted law enforcement when she found them, and a well-respected editor familiar with her work says she never saw homophobic posts. At this point the onus is on her accusers to prove their allegations.

Because the ones who are pushing this story is the anti-gay right. Fox News. Breitbart. The “alt-right” media outlets and “reporters.”

Now, there’s a lot that’s been written about the posts, not a lot that’s been written about her tweets.

So let’s look at some of the tweets some have characterizing as appalling.

And yes, a few are offensive. But many people on the right are pointing to are not.

Remember, these are from 2010 and 2010.

Yes, this is offensive:

This is not:

(For those who don’t know, George Rekers built an entire career out of attacking LGBT people. He made a fortune testifying in court on the “dangers” of gay people. Until he was caught returning from a European vacation with a gay male prostitute.)

Is this homophobic? No. Accurate? I have no idea nor reason to think Rush Limbaugh is gay, but apparently Reid did. Was she disparaging gay people in this tweet? Doubtful.

Last year in December Reid apologized for calling Charlie Crist “Miss Charlie.” He accepted her apology. Here’s a portion of what she wrote:

“In the years since I went from blogger to opinion journalist, I have also learned, through brilliant friends and allies in the LGBT activist community, how to better frame my critiques of those who challenge people’s right to love who they want, marry them, and walk in the world as fully free people.”

“Re-reading those old blog posts, I am disappointed in myself. I apologize to those who also are disappointed in me. Life can be humbling. It often is. But I hope that you know where my heart is, and that I will always strive to use my words for good. I know better and I will do better.”

If anyone has evidence of recent attacks on LGBT people Reid has made, let’s take a look at those.

The point is, if Reid were making anti-LGBT remarks today, absolutely we should hold her accountable. But there’s no evidence of that, and there’s plenty of evidence of her work supporting the LGBT community.

She has more than proven herself to be an LGBT ally today, and in the years since she made her questionable comments.

Does the LGBT community want the anti-LGBT right to decide who and what is anti-LGBT and homophobic?

Does the LGBT community want to take down our allies? That would leave us in a very lonely place.

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‘I’m Not Suicidal’: Kari Lake Pushes Hillary Clinton Murder Conspiracy Theory

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12 hours ago

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April 22, 2024

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Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake is promoting a conspiracy theory suggesting Hillary Clinton wants to assassinate her. Her remarks came just one day before she lost her attempt to have the Supreme Court review what some have called her conspiracy-theory fueled lawsuit about electronic voting machines.

“Lake, who filed the lawsuit during her failed campaign for governor in 2022, challenged whether the state’s electronic voting machines assured ‘a fair and accurate vote.’ Two lower courts dismissed the suit, finding that Lake and former Republican state lawmaker Mark Finchem had not been harmed in a way that allowed them to sue,” CNN reported Monday.

Also on Monday Law&Crime reported that when she filed her lawsuit, a Dominion Voting Systems spokesperson “rejected Lake’s cybersecurity claim, telling Law&Crime it was ‘implausible and conspiratorial.'”

Democracy Docket, founded by top Democratic elections attorney Marc Elias, called it “the end of the road for a conspiratorial lawsuit,” and Lake and Fincham, “election deniers.”

READ MORE: ‘Old and Tired and Mad’: Trump’s Demeanor in Court Detailed by Rachel Maddow

Lake, a far-right conspiracy theorist who has yet to concede the 2020 election, which she lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs, has a history of pushing exaggerated and baseless claims.

On Sunday, as MeidasTouch Network reported, Lake promoted an old, anti-Clinton conspiracy theory but twisted it to try to make it appear she was in danger from former U.S. Secretary of State and former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Lake on Newsmax listened to a clip of Secretary Clinton calling Trump’s fondness for Russian President Vladimir Putin a “bromance,” and saying the ex-president is “just gaga over Putin, because Putin does what he would like to do: kill his opposition, imprison his opposition, drive, you know, journalists and others into exile, rule without any check or balance.”

Then Lake promoted a thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory by responding, “Oh, boy. Oh, that’s really rich coming from a woman like Hillary Clinton, who’s, how many of her friends have just like, mysteriously died or committed suicide?”

“I mean, honestly, that’s rich of her. What President Trump wants is to root out the corruption and deliver our government back to We The People and she looks very nervous. She talked about her friend Mark Elias, Mark Elias has meddled in in his and his cohorts have meddled in the elections.”

She called Democratic policies, “destructive, deadly and frankly, in some ways, diabolical,”and added, “it’s almost comical that Hillary Clinton is talking about Trump wanting to kill his opponents.”

READ MORE: ‘Election Interference’ and ‘Corruption’: Experts Explain Trump Prosecution Opening Argument

“I just want to say as I’m as I’m speaking about this topic, I want everyone out there to know that my brakes on my car have recently been checked and they work. I’m not suicidal. And Hillary, I don’t mean any harm to you. Please don’t send your henchmen out to me. We understand what you’re about. ”

Watch below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Rally Behind MAGA’: Trump Advocates Courthouse ‘Protests’ Nationwide

 

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‘Old and Tired and Mad’: Trump’s Demeanor in Court Detailed by Rachel Maddow

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16 hours ago

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April 22, 2024

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MSNBC top host Rachel Maddow, inside Manhattan’s Criminal Courthouse on Monday declared Donald Trump appeared “old and tired and mad,” as she delivered observations about the ex-president on trial for 34 counts of falsification of business records alleged in the alleged pursuit of election interference to protect his 2016 presidential run.

Trump “seems considerably older, and he seems annoyed. Resigned, maybe, angry. he seems like a man who’s miserable to be here,” the award-winning journalist told MSNBC viewers Monday afternoon.

“I’m no body language expert,” she conceded, “and this is just my observation. He seemed old and tired and mad.”

The New York Times’ Susanne Craig, from inside the courthouse Monday morning reported: “Trump is struggling to stay awake. His eyes were closed for a short period. He was jolted awake when Todd Blanche, his lawyer, nudged him while sliding a note in front of him.”

The Biden campaign was only too happy to pick up and report Craig’s observation, adding “feeble.”

Former Obama senior advisor David Axelrod, pointing to his piece at The Atlantic, wrote of Trump: “He has charmed & conned, schemed & marauded his way through life. He was bred that way. But the weariness & vulnerability captured in courtroom images betray a growing sense in Trump that he could wind up as the thing his old man most reviled:
A loser.”

Watch Maddow’s remarks below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Election Interference’ and ‘Corruption’: Experts Explain Trump Prosecution Opening Argument

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‘Election Interference’ and ‘Corruption’: Experts Explain Trump Prosecution Opening Argument

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18 hours ago

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April 22, 2024

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Prosecutors for the State of New York in their opening statement drew a direct line between the October 2016  “Access Hollywood” leaked audio and Donald Trump’s alleged “hush money” payoff to two women, including the adult film actress Stormy Daniels, telling the jury it was “election fraud, pure and simple.”

Legal experts are dissecting the prosecution’s opening argument. Professor of law, MSNBC contributor and former FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann summed it up, saying New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg “squarely places the NY criminal trial in the election interference/corruption bucket– exactly what the DC and GA indictments allege, just 4 years later.”

“And the NY alleged ‘cover up’ is reminiscent of the two MAL [Mar-a-Lago] alleged obstruction schemes post-presidency, to keep prosecutors from uncovering evidence of that scheme,” Weissmann added.

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo late Monday morning in his 45-minute opening argument told jurors, “This case is about criminal conspiracy and a cover up,” according to MSNBC’s Joyce Vance.

READ MORE: ‘Rally Behind MAGA’: Trump Advocates Courthouse ‘Protests’ Nationwide

“The defendant, Donald Trump, orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election,” Colangelo told jurors, CNN reports. “Then he covered up that criminal conspiracy by lying in his New York business records over and over and over again.”

“This was a planned, coordinated long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election, to help Donald Trump get elected through illegal expenditures,” Colangelo, a former U.S. Department of Justice Acting Associate Attorney General, told jurors.

“Another story about sexual infidelity, especially with a porn star, on the heels of the Access Hollywood tape would have been devastating to his campaign,” Colangelo added. “’So at Trump’s direction, Cohen negotiated the deal to buy Daniels’ story,’ and prevent it from becoming public before the election.”

“It was election fraud, pure and simple.”

Vance, an MSNBC legal analyst, professor of law and former U.S. Attorney, explains: “The scheme the prosecution is outlining is catch & kill to elect Trump-awful but lawful. Trump crossed the line into illegality when he created false business records to conceal his payments to Cohen to cover up the payments to Stormy Daniels.”

READ MORE: Fox News Host Suggests Trump ‘Force’ Court to Throw Him in Jail – by Quoting Him

“It’s always the cover up,” she adds.

Professor of law and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Harry Litman adds, the prosecution told jurors “a straight election-interference story.”

Colangelo, Litman says, told jurors that Trump’s then personal attorney Micheal Cohen “then discussed the [Stormy] situation with Trump who was adamant he did not want the story to come out. Another story…on the heels of the Access Hollywood tape would have been devastating to his campaign.”

MSNBC legal contributor Katie Phang describes Colangelo’s opening argument, saying he is “working methodically and chronologically through the conspiracy, identifying the main characters and their involvement. He speaks clearly and succintly [sic].”

Trump has been criminally indicted in four separate cases and is facing a total of 88 felony charges, including 34 in his New York criminal trial for alleged falsification of business records to hide payments of hush money to an adult film actress and one other woman, in an alleged effort to suppress their stories and protect his 2016 presidential campaign, which could be deemed election interference.

Watch an MSNBC clip below or at this link.

 

READ MORE: Gaetz: ‘Corrupt’ Republicans Could ‘Take a Bribe’ and Throw House to Dems, Blocking Trump Run

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