MSNBC's 'AM Joy' Forced To Apologize After Using White Supremacist's Pic

MSNBC’s Joy Reid apologized on air on Sunday after her “AM Joy” show mistakenly displayed a photo of white supremacist Richard Spencer.

During a segment about former Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, the show used an image of the wrong Spencer in conjunction with a quote from the recently fired secretary.

Reid apologized later during the show.

“I want to make a quick correction. This is a pretty big correction,” she said.

“Earlier in this segment, as we were talking about former Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, we mistakenly showed the wrong image of white supremacist Richard Spencer.”

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CORRECTION: Earlier on #AMJoy as we were talking about former Navy secretary Richard Spencer we mistakenly showed the wrong image of white supremacist Richard Spencer. We are very, deeply sorry for that mistake. pic.twitter.com/l3QW2lNP0b

— AM Joy w/Joy Reid (@amjoyshow) December 1, 2019

“We are very, deeply sorry for that mistake,” an accompanying Twitter message from the show’s account read.

So that is definitely not a photo of former Navy Secretary Richard Spencer pic.twitter.com/ZyPIzQj1Fh

— Josh Billinson (@jbillinson) December 1, 2019

Spencer was fired from his post by Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Nov. 24 following a disagreement with President Donald Trump over the handling of the case of Chief Petty Officer Eddie Gallagher of the Navy SEALs, according to NBC News.

Gallagher had been charged with fatally stabbing a wounded prisoner and firing a sniper rifle at civilians during a deployment in Iraq, The New York Times reported.

While Gallagher was acquitted of the most serious charges, he was convicted of posing for photos with the body of a captive. He was ordered dropped in rank to petty officer first class.

After the trial, the question remained of whether Gallagher would be permitted to retain his Trident pin, the revered insignia of the SEALs.

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The Navy will NOT be taking away Warfighter and Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher’s Trident Pin. This case was handled very badly from the beginning. Get back to business!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 21, 2019

Trump voiced his opinion on the matter on Twitter, writing that “the Navy will NOT be taking away Warfighter and Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher’s Trident Pin.”

“This case was handled very badly from the beginning,” the president wrote.

Spencer explained his side of the story in a Wednesday opinion column in The Washington Post.

The former secretary wrote that he had attempted to assemble a peer-review board to judge whether Gallagher could keep the Trident.

“The Naval Special Warfare community owns the Trident pin, not the secretary of the Navy, not the defense secretary, not even the president. If the review board concluded that Gallagher deserved to keep it, so be it,” Spencer wrote.

Spencer admitted to not consulting with Esper regarding his course of action, a decision he characterized as “a mistake for which I am solely responsible.”

The day after the Navy established the review board, Trump tweeted about the Trident.

That tweet was not the president’s first involvement in the case. Spencer wrote that White House Counsel Pat Cipollone had informed him days earlier that Trump would be involved in the case — despite Spencer’s request to the contrary.

Cipollone had even told Spencer that the president would order him to restore Gallagher’s previous military rank of chief petty officer.

The former Navy secretary referred to Trump’s interference as “a shocking and unprecedented intervention in a low-level review.”

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