Joshua Klein
MSNBC anchor Joy Ann Reid was widely ripped on social media, with many deeming a tweet of hers both “racist” and “pro-looting,” after the left-wing national correspondent suggested a warning to potential looters by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) resembled the sentiment of racists during the segregation era.
Reid likened DeSantis to a segregationist on Saturday, after quoting segregation-era Miami Police Chief Walter E. Headley, who, in 1967, stated, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
“Didn’t take DeSantis long to return to form,” Reid, 53, wrote.
The ReidOut host tweeted the divisive remarks a day after DeSantis warned would-be looters that they would be risking their lives by trying to enter the homes of Hurricane Ian victims, saying, “We’re a Second Amendment state.”
Many took to social media to express outrage over Reid’s comments.
“What is racist about warning people not to take things that don’t belong to them?” asked Jeremy Redfern, deputy press secretary for the governor. “Be specific.”
“Is Joy saying only Blacks loot?” asked author and Security Studies Group President Jim Hanson. “Seems a bit racist.”
“He breathed oxygen too,” wrote author and columnist Kurt Schlichter in reference to Headley. “You should boycott that or you are a racist.”
“This really is the extent of the left’s intellectual reasoning,” wrote conservative writer and commentator Chad Felix Greene.
“Let’s try to parse this out. Is this a claim that, just b/c some racist jackass agreed with the rest of us that ‘looters beware, we have a legal right to defend our home & property’ 55 yrs ago, that now the principle itself is racist?” asked podcast host Jeff Blehar.
“Or is she just unintelligent? Help me here,” he added.
“Describing a threat to looters by politicians or business-people as ‘racist’ is a great example of both the Univariate Fallacy and the subtle bias of woke people,” wrote author and political science professor Wilfred Reilly.
“Did you just assume that (a) all looters are Black, and (b) race is WHY people would kill them?” he added.
“Now wait a minute, @GovRonDeSantis didn’t say anything about race so Joy Reid must think all looters are Black,” wrote former congressional candidate Robby Starbuck.
“Wait a minute, did @ChristinaPushaw’s boss @GovRonDeSantis mention race?!? Reading into Joy Reid’s statement, is she implying that…” wrote former Major League Baseball star Lenny Dykstra.
“When did Ron DeSantis say or imply anything about race? Looters of any demographic, including white straight non-Muslim ones, deserve to get what’s coming to them,” one Twitter use wrote.
“Segregation & Jim Crow is over,” the user added. “Stop trying to pretend anyone of consequence wants them back.”
“Joy Reid, apparently pro-looting!” wrote another.
“Warning people against trying to rob those fleeing a hurricane apparently makes DeSantis the equivalent of a segregationist. How do you not get embarrassed by this stuff?” asked a Twitter user.
“I guess Joy Reid assumes all homeowners are white and the looters are black,” wrote another user. “How does MSNBC allow this clown to have airtime?”
During a press conference in Fort Myers on Saturday, DeSantis said, “I can tell you in the state of Florida, you never know what may be lurking behind somebody’s home. And I would not want to chance that if I were you — given that we’re a Second Amendment state.”
“We are a law and order state, and this is a law and order community,” he added. “So do not think that you’re going to take advantage of people who’ve suffered misery.”
He also mentioned a sign he spotted while touring Fort Myers to see hurricane damage. The sign read, “You loot, We shoot.”
WGCU reports that Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody spoke to state attorneys, letting them know that any suspected looters who are arrested are to remain in jail with no bond.
DeSantis’ remarks drew similarities to the time then-President Donald Trump reacted angrily to a third night of rioting and looting in Minneapolis in reaction to the death of George Floyd in 2020.
At the time, the former president threatened to send in the National Guard to Minneapolis to “get the job done right” and said he spoke to Gov. Tim Walz about sending the military to assist him.
“Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” he wrote. “Thank you!”
In August, Reid accused DeSantis of creating a “white nationalist environment” where “you can’t make white children feel uncomfortable in school.”
Reid’s latest controversy comes as the Sunshine State begins its recovery from the devastating impact of Hurricane Ian that smashed into the west coast of the state as a powerful Category 4 storm last week and has left the state reeling, with people across southwestern Florida left without electricity, drinking water or inhabitable homes.
Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.