Joy Reid‘s sudden exit from MSNBC continues to draw fiery responses from current and former television news personalities. Don Lemon recently took to Instagram (via The Daily Beast) to slam Megyn Kelly, who celebrated Reid’s departure by calling Reid the “absolute worst person on television.”
“Let me just say this to Megyn Kelly,” Lemon said in a direct-to-camera address. “In my 30-some years as a journalist and my 50-some years as a person of color: Go fuck yourself, okay?”
Lemon went on to slam Kelly as a “troll” and a “racist” and rebuke her claim that Reid had a habit of going after white woman on her show and “mocking white women’s tears.”
“No, the worst person on television was fired from NBC and the ‘Today’ show a few years ago, and that’s Megyn Kelly!” Lemon fired back. “That’s the worst person who’s not on television anymore. It’s you! So, hoorah for that. NBC did something good with that.”
Lemon then dived into Kelly’s problematic past, including the notorious moment from 2018 when Kelly defended Blackface costumes for Halloween. He also attempted to expose Kelly’s history of attacking other women on television, including CNN host Kaitlan Collins. Lemon threw to a clip of Kelly calling Collins “extremely boring with no personality” and a “cold-hearted bitch.”
“Was that really necessary?” Lemon asked. “And how is that supportive of women? Now, she could’ve given some advice and said, ‘Hey, you need to somehow establish a bond or connection with your audience.’ She doesn’t have to call the woman a B.”
Lemon later added, “I was actually friendly with Megyn Kelly, and then, when people show you who they are, you better fucking believe it, because we should’ve known.”
Reid’s exit from MSNBC also drew scorn from her network colleague Rachel Maddow, who spoke out against her own company over what she calls a “bad mistake.” She went on to call it “indefensible” that MSNBC could let go of “two non-white hosts in primetime,” citing Reid and Alex Wagner.
Watch Lemon’s full takedown of Kelly in the video below.
