Photo: Getty Images
President Donald Trump blasted MSNBC and celebrated anchor Joy Reid being axed from the network's lineup amid a major shakeup in a post shared on his Truth Social account late Sunday (February 23) night.
"Lowlife Chairman of 'Concast,' Brian Roberts, the owner of Ratings Challenged NBC and MSDNC, has finally gotten the nerve up to fire one of the least talented people in television, the mentally obnoxious racist, Joy Reid," Trump wrote. "Based on her ratings, which were virtually non-existent, she should have been “canned” long ago, along with everyone else who works there."
Trump's post came hours after Variety reported that Reid's weeknight program The ReidOut was axed and MSNBC was also expected to move anchor Alex Wagner to a contributor position as part of the shakeup. The NBCUniversal network is expected to move the trio of Symone Sanders-Townsend, Alicia Mendez and Michael Steele into the 7:00 p.m. ET Tuesday through Friday slot currently being held by Reid, who is expected to host her final show this week.
Wagner, who previously filled the weeknights at 9:00 p.m. slot, was expected to lose to her anchor role to Rachel Maddow, who will return to five days a week after being limited to a Monday-only schedule with various appearances. Wagner worked as a contributor during the first 100 days of Trump's new administration and is reportedly unlikely to return to her weeknight slot, according to the sources.
"Also thrown out was Alex Wagner, the sub on the seriously failing Rachel Maddow show," Trump added. "Rachel rarely shows up because she knows there’s nobody watching, and she also knows that she’s got less television persona than virtually anyone on television except, perhaps, Joy Reid. Then there’s, of course, the LOW IQ Con Man, Al Sharpton, who has, perhaps, the lowest TV ratings in the history of television. What is he doing to Brian Roberts to stay on the air? This whole corrupt operation is nothing more than an illegal arm of the Democrat Party. They should be forced to pay vast sums of money for the damage they’ve done to our Country. Fake News is an UNPARDONABLE SIN!"
MSNBC is also reportedly in discussions with Eugene Daniels of Politico and New York University law professor Melissa Murray about potentially joining the network in unspecified roles, one of the sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed to Variety. The reported moves came after former CNN senior executive Rebecca Kutler was named as MSNBC's new president earlier this month following Rashida Jones' resignation in January.