
Don Lemon to Megyn Kelly over Joy Reid remarks: ‘Go f‑‑‑ yourself'
On his YouTube show Monday, Lemon said Kelly was the worst person on NBC and called her a racist.
'Let me just say to Megan Kelly on my 30-some years as a journalist and my 50-some years as a person of color: Go f‑‑‑ yourself,' Lemon said, a reference to Kelly's remarks toward MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski after the two visited President Trump at Mar-a-Lago shortly after his November victory.
Over the weekend, Kelly posted on X that Reid was the 'absolute worst person on television.'
'Remember when Joy Reid laughingly mocked 'white women tears' as pathetic and offensive to her? Who's crying now, Joy?' Kelly posted, also blasting NBC for 'letting it go on this long.'
Lemon fired back, calling Kelly, who hosted 'Megyn Kelly Today' on NBC from 2017 to 2018, the worst person on television.
'The worst person on television was fired from NBC and the Today Show a few years ago and that's Megyn Kelly,' he added. 'That's the worst person who's not on television anymore. It's you. So hoorah for that. NBC did something good with that.'
Kelly's show Megyn Kelly Today was canceled in 2018 after she defended white people dressing in blackface for Halloween. Lemon referred to the segment as 'evidence' that Kelly is racist.
'I was actually friendly with Megyn Kelly, and then, when people show you who they are, you better f‑‑‑ing believe it, because we should've known,' Lemon said.
The Hill has reached out to Kelly for comment.
cancellation is part of the network's overhaul under the new presidential administration.
Reid previously anchored 'The Reid Report' and 'AM Joy' for the network. She is now leaving the network entirely while Symone Sanders Townsend, Michael Steele and Alicia Menendez, who currently host the network's 'The Weekend,' will switch to anchoring in Reid's former 7 p.m. slot.
In a Townhall clip, Reid tearfully mourned the loss of her show.
'My show had value. What I was doing had value,' Reid said.
Kelly reposted the clip on X, writing, 'Joy Reid has viciously mocked the tears of every white person she's helped cancel over the years for some imaginary racial slight. She's had zero empathy for anyone. Now she wants us to feel sorry for her. WE DON'T.'
Then, on her Monday episode of The Megyn Kelly Show, Kelly buckled down.
'Single tear, white woman tears happening right here, Joy,' Kelly said. 'She was officially fired over the weekend because she's a racist, horrible news anchor with no ratings.'
The end to Reid's career with MSNBC drew a backlash from anchors on the network, including its biggest star, Rachel Maddow.
Maddow and Jen Pskai both opened their Monday MSNBC shows by praising Reid and her work.
Maddow criticized the changes at the network, accusing MSNBC of making a 'mistake' in firing Reid and condemning the network's lack of non-white anchors.
Political leaders also threw their support behind Reid.
Stacey Abrams, activist and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate, posted ways to support Reid on X. 'We've got your back, Joy,' Abrams wrote.
Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, posted that she was 'heartbroken' Reid no longer had a platform 'to educate, inform, and advocate.
'Joy is a true trailblazer and giant of journalism, and I can't wait to see her succeed in her next chapter,' Clarke said.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


CNN
23 minutes ago
- CNN
Video shows dire starvation crisis in Gaza
Distressing video shows the dire effects of the starvation crisis gripping Gaza. Humanitarian aid organizations blame Israeli policies for the crisis and urge Israel to end its blockade of the enclave. Israel says Hamas is at fault. CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports.


CNN
23 minutes ago
- CNN
How Trump's mass deportations could backfire on the American economy by shrinking paychecks
Immigration Donald Trump Pay & incomeFacebookTweetLink Follow President Donald Trump has promised to unleash an economic boom that will turbocharge growth, fatten paychecks and chip away at America's mountain of debt. However, a new analysis from Trump's alma mater suggests that his immigration crackdown – a centerpiece of his second term – could do the exact opposite. Trump's policy of mass deportations would shrink most worker paychecks, erode gross domestic product (GDP) and spike the already-massive federal government budget deficit, according to a Penn Wharton Budget Model analysis shared exclusively with CNN. 'There is no question the US economy will get smaller as you deport a lot of the workforce,' Kent Smetters, professor of business economics and public policy at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, said in an interview. 'You simply have fewer bodies to produce. Fewer people means a smaller economy.' During the 2024 campaign, Trump vowed to wage the biggest domestic deportation program in American history and eventually expel millions of people. The Penn Wharton analysis found that a four-year policy in which 10% of the nation's unauthorized immigrants are removed per year would increase federal deficits by $350 billion, reduce GDP by 1% and dent the average worker's wages. The higher deficits are driven by a combination of lost revenue and new spending required to make mass deportations possible – on top of the funding for border security, interior enforcement and deportations provided by the tax and spending cuts package Trump signed into law this month. If the immigration crackdown spanned 10 years, the cost to the federal government would rise to $987 billion, GDP would shrink by 3.3% and wages would tumble by 1.7%, researchers found. That's not to say all workers would be harmed by the mass deportations. Penn Wharton concluded that authorized, lower-skilled workers – including US-born ones – would get a pay bump due to less competition. Wages for those authorized, lower-skilled workers would jump by 5% by 2034, the analysis said. However, if deportations are reversed after four years, wages for authorized low-skilled workers would eventually drop. 'Part of the promise of deportation is that those left behind are supposed to be better off. In reality, it's a much more mixed result,' Smetters told CNN. Penn Wharton found that the outcome for high-skilled workers is clearer: They'd be worse off. That's because unauthorized, low-skilled workers complement higher-skilled workers, defined in the analysis as native-born citizens, permanent residents and visa-holding immigrants with at least some college education. Higher-skilled workers 'are generally harmed by deportation more than authorized lower-skilled workers are helped,' the Penn Wharton analysis found, adding that higher-skilled workers have a bigger impact on paychecks and GDP and contribute more to taxes. High-skilled workers would suffer a $2,764 loss in annual wages on average if the immigration crackdown spanned 10 years, Smetters said. 'If you're middle class to higher income, you're going to be hurt by deportation because you rely on lower-skilled workers to make your job easier and to make your life more comfortable,' Smetters said. For instance, he pointed to office workers who are helped by lower-skilled employees who clean buildings, do security and help transport people. Lower-skilled workers, at times unauthorized, play central roles in various industries, including construction, restaurants and manufacturing. This is especially true in agriculture. Between 2020 and 2022, about 39% of crop farmworkers were US citizens, while 19% were authorized immigrants. That means the rest – 42% – held no work authorization, according to the US Department of Agriculture. 'There are a lot of jobs in the US that native-born people don't want – and foreign-born people are happy to have,' said Stephanie Roth, chief economist at Wolfe Research. The White House pushed back against the Penn Wharton findings. 'These sort of pedantic analyses miss the forest for the trees by not accounting for the immense costs that everyday Americans are forced to bear due to illegal immigration: violent crime, rising housing costs, eroding social trust and even the overbearing of emergency rooms,' White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement to CNN. Desai pointed to research that finds more than one in ten young adults in the United States are neither employed, pursuing higher education nor in vocational training. 'There is no shortage of American minds and hands to grow our labor force,' Desai said, 'and President Trump's agenda to create jobs for American workers represents this administration's commitment to capitalizing on that untapped potential to build America's next Golden Age while delivering on our mandate to enforce our immigration laws.' It's true that some young people are having trouble finding jobs. The unemployment rate for those aged 20 to 24 stands at 8.2% as of June – more than twice as high as the national rate, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, it's also true that America's aging population creates real challenges for the economy and businesses. Economists fear that as Baby Boomers continue to retire, businesses will struggle to find workers, a problem that would be compounded by a loss of foreign-born workers. Roth, the Wolfe Research economist, worries that mass deportations, along with the Trump administration's decision to terminate the legal status of hundreds of thousands of migrants, will cause some worker shortages and lift prices for consumers. 'We need immigration. Foreign-born workers are critical to the labor force – especially in this environment where the population is aging,' Roth said. Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM, said the Penn Wharton study 'illuminates just how critical rational immigration policy is to the wellbeing of the American economy.' He said the United States needs comprehensive immigration reform that features cross-border migration to support the labor needs of manufacturing, construction, agriculture and household maintenance as well as leisure and hospitality. The study 'strongly implies that the current path of immigration policy is not economically sustainable nor supportive of growth or narrowing budget deficits,' Brusuelas said.


CNN
23 minutes ago
- CNN
Video shows dire starvation crisis in Gaza
Distressing video shows the dire effects of the starvation crisis gripping Gaza. Humanitarian aid organizations blame Israeli policies for the crisis and urge Israel to end its blockade of the enclave. Israel says Hamas is at fault. CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports.