MSNBC host Joy Reid was on Stephen Colbert's Late Show on Monday night, and Colbert asked if she had any thoughts on an unidentified rival network spreading COVID-19 vaccine disinformation while its star host declines to say whether he has been vaccinated himself. Reid did have some thoughts.
"No. 1, it doesn't make sense to me why the folks at that particular network — which I all think we all know who we mean — would want to kill their own viewers," Reid said. "Their viewers are older, their viewers are more susceptible to COVID, and I don't understand what the point is of killing them. Because everyone on air at Fox has been vaccinated, I would put any money on it — they were vaccinated first, I'm sure they shoved little old ladies out of the way to get their vaccines first."
Fox & Friends cohost Steve Doocey did urge viewers to get vaccinated Monday morning and Sean Hannity — not the prime time host Reid and Colbert were referring to — made a more indirect plea Monday night.
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Reid also endorsed a plan by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to follow the lead of Texas Democrats and flee Washington, D.C., to stop Democrats from passing their infrastructure bill. "You got to have a quorum to pass a bill in the Senate," he told Fox News on Sunday. "I would leave before I let that happen."
"I think they should do that, I think it's a great idea, a phenomenal idea," Reid said, smiling. "Listen to Lindsey Graham." The Texas Legislature and U.S. Congress have different rules, she added. "If they left, then Democrats could simply pass whatever bills they wanted with the senators who were there. It's not the same sort of system. And Lindsey Graham has been a senator a really long time — he should know how this works."
The Texas Democrats left the state to thwart legislation making it harder to vote, among other things. What Republicans are trying to say to their voters with these bills, Reid said, is that "if you'll come to the polls, we will guarantee you that you will win. If you don't win at the ballot box, we'll fix it afterwards."
The quorum-denying tactic the Texas Democrats — and Oregon Republicans in recent years — used are actually pretty effective at the state level. Senate Republicans have the filibuster.
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