Joy Reid came to the defense of journalist Rula Jebreal over the weekend after Jebreal referred to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries as a “monkey” and an “errand boy” for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, during an online appearance.
On a recent livestream, the former MSNBC host described the remarks by the left-wing Palestinian writer as poorly worded rather than racist.
“Sometimes even our friends can get it wrong,” Reid, 57, said before airing the viral clip.
She suggested the controversy stemmed from an attempt to make a political point that was undermined by a cultural gap, saying people can “stumble” in ways that cause their message to “go askew and go awry.”
The clip showed Jebreal, 53, speaking angrily to Wajahat Ali on September 1, when she called Jeffries “a bought-and-paid-by-AIPAC monkey” and “basically an errand boy” for the influential pro-Israel lobbying organization.
Reid, who introduced Jebreal as a “dear friend,” appeared to downplay the exchange rather than condemn it outright.
“Because look, sometimes… people who are not US born and raised in the United States sometimes don’t have the full cultural, you know, alignment and competency to really understand African-American history,” Reid said.
She added that such critics may miss “the nuances” involved, including “the way you need to criticize Black leaders.”
Joy Reid defended left-wing Palestinian writer and ‘dear friend’ Rula Jebreal on Friday
Jebreal, a former MSNBC commentator, went viral last week for rhetoric offered during an appearance on The Left Hook Podcast
However, Reid went on to point out how Jebreal’s remarks were accompanied by a warning of her own: ‘And I don’t mean it in a racist way.’
Reid then revealed how Jebreal, a former MSNBC commentator who was born in Israel but has been in the US for nearly two decades, ‘reached out’ to her ‘immediately’ after the exchange to express ‘horror’ at how her words ‘came through.’
‘Rula also put up a tweet apologizing,’ Reid remarked as an apology published earlier in the day flashed on-screen. The former cable news host read it aloud.
‘I am disgusted and horrified that Hakeem Jeffries is taking money from AIPAC amidst Israel’s genocide in Palestine,’ it began. ‘That said, a term that I used to describe him was inappropriate and offensive and should never have been used.
‘I apologize unconditionally.’
Viewers were then met with a surprise appearance from Jebreal and Ali.
‘There’s a cultural issue, right? I mean, if you were born here and you were African-American, it would be different – you would know that,’ Reid told Jebreal during the apparent attempt at damage control.
Jebreal began by apologizing profusely, saying that there ‘was no excuse’ for her comments, despite Reid’s take.
The Israel-born Palestinian foreign policy expert was criticized by multiple lawmakers for telling the show’s host that Hakeem Jeffries is ‘a bought-and-paid-by-AIPAC monkey’ and ‘basically an errand boy’ for the lobbying group
Reid framed the writer’s rhetoric as clumsy rather than racist, before reading an apology she penned three days after the fact
‘Thank you, Joy, and I love you. And I want to say that I heard a lot of, you know, of my friends who are in the Afro-American community. And I again to you, I apologize,’ Jebreal said.
‘I apologize for the words that were offensive, inappropriate, and should never have been used,’ she added. ‘There’s no excuse or justification.
‘I take full responsibility for- for a big mistake I made.’
The appearance came after multiple Democratic lawmakers, including Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, New York Congressman Ritchie Torres and Ohio Congresswoman Shontel Brown, condemned Jebreal’s words.
‘To be clear, there isn’t a non-racist way to call Leader Jeffries – a Black man – a “monkey” or “errand boy,”‘ the Congressional Black Caucus, an organization that represents Black members of Congress, wrote in a social media post.
‘@WajahatAli, this is what happens when we hold ourselves to such low standards for what’s allowable in our discourse- people get comfortable being openly bigoted.
‘We have to stop platforming and trafficking in anti-Black racism, whether it’s on the political right or the left.’
Reid welcomed the journalist – and the Left Hook’s host Wajahat Ali – to the show as well, where she profusely apologized. ‘There’s no excuse or justification,’ she said.
Ali, a New York Times contributor and former Daily Beast columnist, published his own post after the abrupt appearance.
‘Give it a watch,’ he told fans.
His podcast, launched in 2024, has more than 121,000 subscribers.
