In a recent and deeply irresponsible appearance, former MSNBC personality Joy Reid has descended to a new low, leveraging a podcast platform to propagate a dangerous and baseless conspiracy theory. She openly cast doubt on the very real and traumatic assassination attempt that targeted President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania during the summer of 2024. This vile rhetoric serves as a stark reminder of the radicalism that has come to define so much of the liberal media, a faction Reid now represents in its most unhinged form.
It is crucial to remember that MSNBC, a network not known for its conservative leanings, ultimately found Reid’s extremism too much to bear and dismissed her from their employ. Without the minimal guardrails and constraints of a major network, her descent into outright delusion and misinformation has accelerated at an alarming rate. Her current commentary exists in a space entirely divorced from reality and basic human decency, representing the absolute worst of partisan hackery.
Perhaps the most disgraceful element of Reid’s revolting monologue is the profound disrespect it shows to the memory of Corey Comperatore, a true American hero. Comperatore was tragically and fatally shot that very same day while selflessly using his own body as a shield to protect his family from the assassin’s bullets. By labeling the entire horrific event a fiction, Reid spits on the grave of a patriot and inflicts further pain upon a grieving family, all for a cheap political point scored with her radical audience.
During her interview with MeidasTouch’s Katie Phang, Reid did not merely hint at skepticism; she fully embraced a bizarre and fantastical narrative utterly detached from truth and evidence. She repeated a fringe leftist claim that the near-fatal shooting of the former President was somehow staged, demonstrating a shocking willingness to ignore facts, eyewitness accounts, and the profound courage displayed that day.
Pushing her insane rant even further into the realm of absolute absurdity, Reid landed squarely in the world of fantasy. “He’s got these magical doctors who claimed that he was shot in the ear, but his ear, I guess, grew back,” Reid stated with a stunning lack of self-awareness. This comment alone reveals a mind so clouded by partisan hatred that it willfully dismisses medical professionals and the visible, well-documented proof of the President’s injury and recovery.
Joy Reid claims that "magical doctors" were able to cover-up a conspiracy that President Trump was not actually shot. pic.twitter.com/OAQYJ94KiP
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 3, 2025
Adding to the circus of misinformation, Reid continued her evidence-free tirade, complaining, “He had a Duplo bandage on one minute, no bandage the next. We can’t get a medical record from this alleged assassination. He was supposed to be shot. We have nothing. We’ve got nothing. You can’t even ask.” This demand for the immediate public release of private medical records is a transparent political ploy, one that would never be applied to a Democrat politician, and it ignores the ongoing law enforcement investigations.
Rather than acting as a journalistic check on this madness, her interviewer, Katie Phang, eagerly joined the conspiratorial chorus, validating the insane premise. Phang chimed in, going along with the charade by stating, “Where are the investigative records? One day, he slapped his maxi pad on his ear, the next day, the ear is totally fine.” This collaborative effort to delegitimize a traumatic national event and the resilience of a survivor showcases a media environment that has abandoned all pretense of objectivity.
In a final act of historical ignorance to bolster her weak argument, Reid bloviated, “We knew almost immediately, almost everything about [President John F.] Kennedy’s assassination. I know more about [President William] McKinley’s assassination that I do about this attempt to assassinate Trump when he was a presidential candidate.” This comparison is not only factually inaccurate regarding the timeline of the JFK investigation but also a pathetic attempt to manufacture outrage where none is warranted.
Reid then issued a grievance against the entire press corps, wailing, “We’re getting nothing. The mainstream media isn’t demanding his medical records.” This statement is perhaps the only one with a sliver of truth, though not in the way she intends. The mainstream media has indeed failed in its duty, not by refusing to harass a victim for his private health data, but by its glaring lack of serious investigation into the assassin’s motives and background.
The American people deserve a media that focuses on facts, honors heroes, and respects the office of the presidency, not one that traffics in deranged conspiracy theories for clicks.