Joy Reid says Jews in US are 'perfectly safe,' before completely contradicting herself seconds later

Joy Reid engaged in a howler this week while teasing a segment set to speak on RNC chair Lara Trump's recent warning that homegrown antisemitism is on the rise.

Donald Trump's daughter-in-law made the claim during a Fox News appearance on Thursday. She compared the current climate and spreading 'sentiment' to the situation seen in 'Nazi Germany.'

'You talk to Jewish New Yorkers - they're terrified to walk down the street,' Lara, 43, said, urging the 103 House Democrats who unsuccessfully voted to end US aid to Israel to heed her warning.

Reid, 57, first set out on repackaging the conservative's comments, claiming she has cited the 'return of Nazism.'

'You’re saying unless we allow Israel to kill at will as many men, women, and children as they want... then Jewish people in New York City, in the US, are afraid to walk the streets because it’s Nazism?' Reid said, before offering a laugh. 

'I do not understand how that works - that does not make sense to me. I can assure you, I am here in Harlem right now, Jewish people are perfectly safe walking the streets of the United States,' she said.

The former MSNBC star contradicted herself within seconds, though.

'But [Benjamin] Netanyahu has made folks a lot less safe, because people keep attaching all Jewish people to his genocidal policies,' she said.

Reid added that 'that is the problem,' putting particular emphasis on the word 'that.' 

'It’s that he’s creating a world in which people blame ordinary, regular, nice Jewish people that didn’t do anything for everything Israel does,' she said.

The clip ended there, weeks after protesters convened near New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani's residence at Gracie Mansion in Manhattan last May to claim the politician, a proud Palestine supporter, had failed to protect Jewish New Yorkers.

Another procession carried conflicting signs that argued Israel criticism was not the same as antisemitism - the point Reid appeared to be clumsily trying to make.

In the weeks before, several suspects spray-painted swastikas and 'Hitler' on multiple homes and synagogues in Forest Hills.

During the dueling protests, the Director of Programming and Strategy at #EndJewHatred, Michelle Ahdoot, told CBS New York that the group's ultimate goal is to oust Mayor Mamdani from office.

The mayor recently told The New York Times he was in talks with the city's legal department about potentially arresting Netanyahu for war crimes if he sets foot in the five boroughs in September for the UN General Assembly.

He admitted in a video statement Tuesday that his team has discerned city officials do not have the 'independent legal authority' to arrest the leader, despite a warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Protesters accuse Mamdani of failing to protect Jewish New Yorkers

Protesters gathered Tuesday near Mayor Zohran Mamdani's residence at Gracie Mansion on the Upper East Side, accusing him of failing to protect Jewish New Yorkers. Counter-protesters also showed up to defend the mayor. CBS News New York's Adi Guajardo reports. For video licensing inquiries, contact: [email protected]

YouTube • CBS New York

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) recently found in an annual audit that in 2025, nearly 6300 antisemitic incidents were reported nationwide. One-thousand one-hundred and sixty of the reports originated from New York, according to the group. 

Meanwhile, the war in Gaza has been raging since October 7, 2023.

The US and Israel have also repeatedly struck Iran since February 28. Both countries have warned the country is close to securing a nuclear weapon.

Reid, meanwhile, previously rankled brass at MSNBC before her firing in February 2025, via a steady stream of social media posts that often referenced Israel, sources previously told The Daily Mail.

An exec from the network said at the time that Reid's stance on the Israel-Hamas war was problematic. They cited 'intense' conference calls Reid had with her staff that left the impression that she had sympathy for the impact of the war on the Gazan people but little for Israelis. 

An insider similarly told Politico that her controversial social media posts - including shaming Latino Republicans for voting for Trump and claiming the media's preoccupation with Russia's invasion of Ukraine was motivated by the victims being 'white' and 'Christian' - 'gave the [network's] Standards Department heartburn' at the time,

Reid's ratings, by that point, were down from a high of 3 million viewers per episode in her first year on the air in 2020 to a low of 1.1 million.

She has since started a Substack and show on her YouTube channel - joining figures like Jim Acosta and Don Lemon.