Joy Reid Defends Left-Wing Journalist Who Called Hakeem Jeffries ‘AIPAC Monkey’

Joy Reid defended left-wing Palestinian journalist Rula Jebreal for branding House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) an “AIPAC monkey,” with the former cable news star arguing Jebreal was just ignorant to how the term could be perceived as racist because she wasn’t born in the USA.

Reid backed up Jebreal during the Friday episode of her YouTube show, three days after the now-viral comment was made.

“Sometimes even our friends can get it wrong. They can stumble over trying to make a point

that maybe there’s a cultural disconnection that causes that point to go askew and go awry,” Reid said.

She claimed Jebreal using the term “monkey” to refer to a Black lawmaker was different than if a right-winger had done it, since conservatives tend to be “absolutely malicious.” Instead, Jebreal simply didn’t understand the racial aspect to what she was saying — which made sense, considering she was born in Israel and was of Afro-Palestinian heritage, Reid argued.

“People who are not U.S. born and raised in the United States sometimes don’t have the cultural, you know, alignment and competency to really understand African-American history and the nuances of it and the way you need to criticize Black leaders,” Reid continued.

She said American liberals aren’t immune to such mistakes, either, with Reid pointing to the time Democratic lawmakers wore African garb to honor George Floyd.

Reid’s remarks come after Jebreal bashed Jeffries during a podcast interview with progressive commentator Wajahat Ali on September 1.

“He is a bought and paid by AIPAC monkey,” Jebreal said. “With all due respect — and I don’t mean it in a racist way. He is just basically an errand boy, and we’re done and tired.”

While Reid shrugged it off, Jebreal was skewered by many on social media soon after, including by the Congressional Black Caucus, which promptly denounced Jebreal and called out Ali for platforming her.

“To be clear, there isn’t a non-racist way to call Leader Jeffries—a Black man—a ‘monkey’ or ‘errand boy,’” the caucus wrote, in a statement on X. “@WajahatAli, this is what happens when we hold ourselves to such low standards for what’s allowable in our discourse—people get comfortable being openly bigoted. We have to stop platforming and trafficking in anti-Black racism, whether it’s on the political right or the left.”

A number of Democratic lawmakers — including Rep. Shontel Brown (D-OH) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) — also condemned Jebreal for what she said.

Jebreal has tried to do damage control following her interview, posting while she was “disgusted and horrified” by Jeffries taking money from AIPAC, she apologized “unconditionally” for calling him a monkey.

Watch above.

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