Joy Reid Fires Back After JD Vance Tells Her To “Show Gratitude” For America 🇺🇸
Written by b87fm on 10/05/2025
Former MSNBC host Joy Reid had time this week after Vice President JD Vance took a shot at her online — telling the longtime journalist she should “show a little gratitude” for living in America.
The whole thing started when Vance reposted a year-old clip of Reid speaking with writer Ta-Nehisi Coates about her family’s experience with racism after immigrating to the U.S.
“Joy Reid has had such a good life in this country… yet she oozes with contempt,” Vance wrote on X. “You’d be a much happier person if you showed a little gratitude.”
Joy Reid has had such a good life in this country. It’s been overwhelmingly kind and gracious to her. She is far wealthier than most. Yet she oozes with contempt.
My honest, non-trolling advice to Joy Reid is that you’d be a much happier person if you showed a little gratitude https://t.co/GCl6nTKXZg
— JD Vance (@JDVance) October 2, 2025
Reid wasn’t here for it. In a detailed Substack post, she called out Vance for targeting her while “the government is literally shut down,” adding that her mother’s story was about facing racism — not rejecting America.
“Waking up to the reality that the vice president of the United States deliberately put a target on you… is something,” she wrote on Threads.
Reid also pushed back on the idea that Black Americans should be “grateful when they succeed.” She didn’t mince words:
“The idea that Black people owe gratitude — to white people, presumably — when we succeed, is just the same old racist balderdash we’re used to from the right.”
Reid ended her post by comparing her self-made career to Vance’s billionaire backers, writing:
“Unlike JD, I built my life and career the old-fashioned way: on my own.”
The exchange adds to the ongoing tension between the two, who have publicly clashed before over race, privilege, and affirmative action.
