Joy Reid Reacts to Rittenhouse Verdict: ‘Anyone Who Supports Black Lives Matter Should Be Very Afraid Tonight’

Hours after Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty on all counts, Joy Reid joined her own show as a guest with Jason Johnson filling in. Reid has been especially vocal in her belief that Rittenhouse should have been found guilty of homicide after he shot three people – two fatally – amid civil unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August 2020.

Earlier this week, Reid posted a TikTok video in which she said, “In America, there’s a thing about both white vigilantism and white tears, particularly male White tears,” she said in a video posted on Tuesday. “Really, White tears in general, because that’s what Karens are, right?

Johnson asked Reid for her immediate reaction to the verdict.

I was not at all surprised. We’ve talked about this. I mean, this is what we expected to happen because I think we have to keep in mind when we’re watching the criminal justice system at work, that it was designed to do exactly what it did today. Gun laws helped to enhance the design to allow this verdict to happen today. This country was built on the idea that White men had a particular kind of freedom and a particular kind of citizenship that only they have. That gives, you know, from the slave catchers on, the right to inflict violence in the name of protecting property. That’s like the foundational creation of the United States.

Reid said she worries that the verdict sends the message to armed White that it’s acceptable to go to Black Lives Matter protests and use them as an “excuse” to do what Rittenhouse did and “get away with it.”

Later in the segment, Johnson played a clip of Vice President and former prosecutor Kamala Harris reacting to the verdict.

“The verdict really speaks for itself,” she said. “As many of you know, I’ve spent the majorty of my career to make the criminal system more equitable and clearly, there’s a lot more work to do.”

Johnson aid the vice president’s response “left me a little cold.”

“I wasn’t expecting her to necessarily come out and emote about the case,” said Reid. “Barack Obama didn’t do it when he was president. Joe Biden isn’t going to do it. But I think one thing is important to remember: this is also a woman as a senator tried to get an anti-lynching law enacted and we have not been able to have an anti-lynching law enacted in this country, which has had more lynchings than any other country… We can’t get an anti-lynching law here.”

Reid also said that far-right groups such as the Proud Boys were treating the verdict as though they had won the Super Bowl.

“What we need to worry about is we that have nothing in place legally, we have nothing in place culturally or socially to stop the next group of White nationalists, Proud Boys, MAGA people, whoever they want to take from this verdict when they want and to use it as permission to attack Black Lives Matter. And Black Lives Matter ain’t just Black people as we just saw.”

She concluded by that “anyone who supports Black Lives Matter should be very afraid tonight.”

Watch above via MSNBC.