Fox News host Tucker Carlson couldn’t control his laughter during his primetime show after listening to MSNBC’s Joy Reid’s on-air remarks: “In the greatest clip ever recorded on cable news..guess Joy Reid’s IQ.”
MSNBC host Joy Reid got blowback from both Democrats and Republicans over remarks she made on her show The ReidOut. The statement was described as so remarkably ridiculous and tone-deaf that Tucker Carlson couldn’t stop laughing when he discussed it during his show.
According to reports, Reid said the word “inflation” isn’t part of the common language and has been “taught” to Americans by Republicans. “The only people I ever hear use the word inflation are journalists and economists,” Reid said. “Right? So, that is not part of the normal lexicon of the way people talk. So, it’s interesting that Republicans are doing something they don’t normally do which is not use the common tongue—not use common English like they do on their campaign.”
“But what they’ve done is they’ve taught people the word inflation,” she added. “Most people who would have never used that word ever in their lives are using it now because they’ve been taught it. Including on TV, including in newspapers, they’ve been taught this word and are wrapping it around the reasons they really want to vote.”
Tucker Carlson discussed the MSNBC host’s remarks by giving a sarcastic introduction. “In the greatest clip ever recorded on cable news,” Carlson began. “Joy Reid of MSNBC explained that voters are upset about inflation because Republicans taught them the word. They didn’t know the word inflation! But Republicans taught them that. Taught them to be upset about it. But actually, according to people who know what they are talking about, inflation really is real. It’s higher than it’s been in nearly forty years.”
After showing the clip of Joy Reid, Tucker Carlson blasted her. “Someday we’re going to do a reoccurring segment called Guess Joy Reid’s IQ,” he said. “That’ll be fun…What they’ve done, says the Harvard lady. What they’ve done! They taught people the word inflation. There you have it, ladies and gentlemen, the Republican Party running around teaching people words. Even three-syllable words: in…fla…tion. Inflation. It’s scary.”
According to Fox News, Carlson wasn’t the only one who was laughing at Reid’s claim. Margaret Nichols, who said she’s a Democrat, laughed and called Reid’s assertion absurd. “It’s ridiculous that we’re being told that we’re taught this or fed this through the media as though we aren’t intelligent, individual people that understand what’s happening around us and what’s happening in our pocketbooks,” she said.
Fox News panel made up of Republicans and Democrats agreed that Joy Reid’s remarks were “absurd and ridiculous” (Credit: Screenshot)
Podcast host Jason Whitlock also weighed in. “My grandmother finished 8th grade,” he wrote. “She talked about inflation non-stop during Jimmy Carter’s presidency. I remember listening to her and my mother complain about it on the phone. Joy Reid went to an Ivy League school. This is sad and embarrassing.”
Journalist Glen Greenwald also took aim at Reid: “These were the first three paragraphs of the nationally televised speech Jimmy Carter delivered in 1978 because Americans regarded inflation as a grave national crisis. Joy Reid thinks the GOP invented this term this year and nobody used it before.”
Republican voter Frank Gregory explained that the American public is living with inflation every day, despite being told that they may not understand the situation. “American voters are not stupid people,” he said. “These people in their ivory towers, they’re the ones with no concept, and they think we’re stupid.”
Beth Parlato, a lifelong Republican voter, said the key problem behind most issues is the inability to debate and discuss with people of opposing viewpoints in a friendly, cordial manner. “I’ve always been a conservative, and you’re a liberal, and we’re able to have a conversation,” she said to a liberal panelist. Parlato stressed the necessity of discussing real problems like inflation with all viewpoints in order to come to an understanding and possibly work toward solutions. “That’s what has to happen,” she said. “Because, I think that when we come to the table when we have real conversations, we agree on a lot.”