Jane Sanders Just Burned MSNBC’s Joy Reid On Twitter
Photo by Drew Angerer/GettyThere are a select class of liberal media personalities in America—Hillary Clinton acolytes one and all—who despise Bernie Sanders more than they could ever despise any Republican, or perhaps Satan himself. For the crime of having political integrity and daring to oppose The Chosen One during her coronation, Sanders bears the brunt of their scorn, and there’s no issue, no matter how unrelated or irrelevant, that can’t be pinned on the senator from Vermont.
MSNBC’s Joy Reid is one of their ringleaders (this hilariously misguided list is a decent indication of the kind of crowd you should studiously avoided if political honesty is your thing), and she’s constantly going on the offensive against Sanders in ways that are often bizarre and unpredictable. Yesterday, around noon, she made a good point about male influence in media as it relates to the recent sexual harassment/assault scandals:
The “voice of God” in media and politics has been male (and mostly white) for forever. These men are given not just moral authority but the power to shape the national narrative. We’re watching that authority crumble as we learn how many have used their power to press for sex. https://t.co/jOPgFEMN0l
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) November 29, 2017
What we’re also learning is that it’s not just a media problem. The same dynamic plays out throughout our society, from the restaurant boss to the White House. The change that’s needed here is a system-wide societal reboot.
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) November 29, 2017
What you should know about Joy Reid, though, is that even when she’s making sense, she’s never far from beating the war drums against Sanders. It only took one more tweet for the whole thing to devolve:
There are literally no credible national authority figures right now (one could argue that Barack Obama is, but even he can’t reach a percentage of the population that has become hardcore ethnonationalist). Certainly the current president isn’t one.
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) November 29, 2017
@SenSanders Bernie Sanders.
— Jeffrey Cawthorne (@zo7vette) November 29, 2017
There was no way Reid was going to let that slide. After all, it had been like three tweets since she had compulsively attacked her bete noir:
Um… I get that he has a hardcore following, but his own attitudes toward women, from his weird early writings to his physical dismissal of women in his presence (including his own wife) make that an incredibly dubious prospect.
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) November 29, 2017
Hoo boy.
So, the “weird early writings” goes back to an essay Sanders wrote in 1972 on gender roles. “Weird” is probably a fair adjective, but anyone giving the thing an honest read will see that it’s an earnest essay attempting to unravel the complicated dynamics of male-female sexual dynamics. Which, of course, doesn’t stop people like Joy Reid from repeatedly attempting to use it as evidence that Sanders is a depraved, violent pervert. Before Reid’s tweet, you don’t have to look far into the past to see another example—Erica Barnett tried to draw a direct line from Al Franken to Sanders in the aftermath of Franken’s groping scandal.
It’s pure bunk, but the really offensive part of Reid’s tweet was the second part, about Sanders’ so-called “physical dismissal” of his wife. And that’s where Jane Sanders came in with a blowtorch:
I didn’t answer your biased reporting about Bernie during the last 2 years @JoyAnnReid. But don’t ever use me to demean my husband. I am very happy & very proud to be Bernie’s wife. Your perception couldn’t be more wrong. Have you ever talked with him? You’ve never spoken w/me. https://t.co/SZG7uV8cfO
— Jane O’Meara Sanders (@janeosanders) November 29, 2017
Reid did not respond, of course, and she probably won’t because there’s no good way to dig your way out of that hole. Instead, we can anxiously await the next world problem that she lays in Sanders’ lap. The tax reform bill must secretly be his fault, right? Or North Korea? Or net neutrality? Or…