MSNBC host Joy Reid apologized over the weekend for writing blog posts that were criticized as anti-gay.
Reid’s comments, which were posted nearly a decade ago on her blog The Reid Report repeatedly mocked then-Florida Gov. Charlie Crist as a closeted gay man whom she nicknamed “Miss Charlie.” Reid claimed that Crist, a conservative Republican, was married to a woman so he could be Sen. John McCain’s running mate in 2008. Crist is now a Florida congressman and has said he is heterosexual.
“I can just see poor Charlie on the honeymoon, ogling the male waiters and thinking to himself, ‘God, do I actually have to see her naked?’” Reid wrote on her blog.
In a statement to Mediaite, the “AM Joy” host said she had been trying to call out “potential hypocrisy” by Crist, who opposed same-sex marriage. She said that as someone who was “not a member of the LGBT community, I regret the way I addressed the complex issue of the closet and speculation on a person’s sexual orientation with a mocking tone and sarcasm.”
“It was insensitive, tone-deaf and dumb. There is no excusing it — not based on the taste-skewing mores of talk radio or the then-blogosphere, and not based on my intentions.”
Reid also “deeply” apologized to Crist, “who was the target of my thoughtlessness. My critique of anti-LGBT positions he once held but has since abandoned was legitimate in my view. My means of critiquing were not.”
Crist accepted the apology on Twitter.
This article has been updated to note Mediate was not the only outlet to report on the blogs surfaced by Jamie_Maz.