Joy Ann Reid leads The Reid Out tonight with exploring why in part Gov. Gavin Newsom beat the recall effort: according to exit polls the most important issue for voters was the pandemic. 

"OK, we get it! COVID is the precious and you love it. You love COVID so much you want it to spread into schools, at the office, in the Walmart, on the cruise ships and in the club," Reid said. "That great spongy ball with the red spikes, you want it pumping through your veins with an Ivermectin chaser. Why do you love it do dadgum so much? We have absolutely no bloody idea." 

"But here's the thing you weirdos … everyone else hates COVID!" she added, before listing instances of hospitals being overwhelmed with coronavirus patients and people who died from the virus.

"So yeah, the rest of us hate that this is happening. Even the Pope. The Pope hates COVID too, and he loves everybody. He also says get vaccinated," Reid said. "Yet, you, you Republicans seem to be A-OK with COVID running wild. And then you came for California. Trying to boot a Democratic governor from a blue state and hand it over to the COVID candidate."

Reid played a video clip of former Republican California gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder discussing the coronavirus in an interview with CNN; Elder told the network he opposes vaccines and masks for "young people."

"If misinformation could kill. It all helps to explain why Governor Gavin Newsom beat the recall effort and by a lot," Reid said. "Republicans, your thirst for COVID is why you lost. Nobody likes your policies that threaten our safety and our kids."

"You may want COVID. You may want to ingest horse de-wormer and attend far too many funerals, but we, we don’t," she added. "[California] is perhaps the first real tangible proof that your creepy little COVID-loving death cult ways are not going to work for you at the ballot box next year. In fact it’s political suicide, and also apparently talk radio suicide because your brilliant little COVID plan is killing your right-wing hosts."

Reid was blasted on social media following the rant, with critics saying she was doing "significantly more harm than good," and that she was a "terrible person." One even suggested that she had a "mental problem" and needed to be committed to a hospital.

Reid also recently came under fire over a spat with celebrity singer Nicki Minaj, in which she scolded the star for her vaccine hesitancy. Reid later acknowledged her own vaccine hesitancy while former President Donald Trump was still in office. 

The far-left host, who has repeatedly dispelled conspiracy theories and made racially disparaging remarks, took criticism earlier this year when she said she wore two masks outdoors in spite of being fully vaccinated.

 MSNBC host Joy Reid addressed her viral spat with rapper superstar Nicki Minaj for expressing hesitancy over the coronavirus vaccine. 

On Monday, Reid scolded Minaj for her tweets expressing skepticism of the vaccine to her nearly 23 million Twitter followers, which prompted a fiery response from the hip-hop artist. 

The next day, Reid attempted to lower the temperature and pivot towards a "teachable moment."

"Essentially, she made public her own vaccine deliberation, which according to trusted friends is a better way to describe vaccine hesitancy, which by the way is not the same thing as refusal," Reid told her viewers on Tuesday. "But by doing, Nicki also used her social media platform and her 22 million Twitter followers to cast doubt on the vaccine to a heavily Black audience. Needless to say, both my comments and her series of infuriated responses went viral. Clearly, Nicki was not amused, but that’s okay. I feel like every moment is a teachable moment. And this might be the one that illustrates on Twitter in public how hard it is for us to talk to each other on these two sides of the ‘get the vaccine,’ ‘don’t get the vaccine’ aisle."

Reid acknowledged the "frustration" among the vaccinated and the "anger" among the unvaccinated, but stressed that Black Americans "are not the problem" when it comes to the holdouts, placing blame on Republicans who've refused to get vaccinated despite CDC data that shows only 10% of the Black population are fully vaccinated. 

"But that's said, Nicki's tweets point out a very real thing. There is still a lot of vaccine hesitancy among Black folks," Reid said. "Everything from just being reluctant or fear of potential side effects all the way up to conspiracy theories about the vaccines that are causing people to refuse to take them or just delay. And that needs to be addressed. Let's be clear, there are good solid reasons for Black people to have these doubts."

She then acknowledged her own vaccine hesitancy, pointing to tweets from September 2020 that read, "The Trump administration has so broken the federal government, and several state governments thanks to sycophant governors like @RonDeSantisFL @BrianKempGA @GregAbbott_TX @KristiNoem etc etc etc … I can't even conceive how we put it back together and restore any credibility." 

Another one read, "Who on God's green earth would trust a vaccine by the @US-FDA?" 

The Trump administration has so broken the federal government, and several state governments thanks to sycophant governors like @RonDeSantisFL @BrianKempGA @GregAbbott_TX @KristiNoem etc etc etc ... I can't even conceive how we put it back together and restore any credibility.

— Joy-Ann (Pro-Democracy) Reid 😷 (@JoyAnnReid) September 18, 2020

I mean, will anyone ... anyone at all ... ever fully trust the @CDCgov again? And who on God's earth would trust a vaccine approved by the @US_FDA ?? How do we get a vaccine distributed after this broken, Trumpist nonsense has infected everything? Even if Biden wins?

— Joy-Ann (Pro-Democracy) Reid 😷 (@JoyAnnReid) September 18, 2020

However, she blamed Trump, who she called a "sociopath president" and accused him of "manipulating the CDC and the FDA" to develop a vaccine by the election. 

"So yeah, people like me were really hesitant. But luckily, there have been doctors and scientists who can reassure us who were willing to be reassured that the vaccines, once they came out months later, were indeed safe and had been produced without Trumpist input whether or not they came through the unfortunately-named Operation Warp Speed," Reid said. "That's why I got vaccinated months ago. And my immediate family got vaccinated. And yes, I talked to my doctor, something that by the way, lots of Black folks who live in red southern states that have refused to expand Medicaid cannot do because they don't have a doctor or regular contact with the medical establishment until they get sick."

"Vaccine hesitancy in the Black community is a real and pressing issue. It's not something to fight about on Twitter. It's something to talk about," Reid added before inviting a medical expert to talk about the vaccine. 

Reid may have tuned in to the liberal radio morning show "The Breakfast Club," which slammed the MSNBC host for shaming Minaj earlier in the day. 

"I respect Joy-Ann Reid. She's the homie, but she missed a real moment to teach yesterday because Nicki never said don't take the vaccine," co-host Charlamagne Tha God reacted. "Like, she spoke on why she had vaccine hesitancy but she also in the very next tweet she will probably get vaccinated to go on tour. Like, Joy could have used that moment on her show to correct Nicki on whatever misinformation she put out." 

Today Nicki Minaj tweeted that she wasn’t going to the Met Gala because they were mandating the vaccine and she wouldn’t be bullied into getting it:

They want you to get vaccinated for the Met. if I get vaccinated it won’t for the Met. It’ll be once I feel I’ve done enough research. I’m working on that now. In the meantime my loves, be safe. Wear the mask with 2 strings that grips your head & face. Not that loose one 🙏♥️

— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) September 13, 2021

"They want you to get vaccinated for the Met. if I get vaccinated it won’t for the Met. It’ll be once I feel I’ve done enough research. I’m working on that now," Minaj wrote. "In the meantime my loves, be safe. Wear the mask with 2 strings that grips your head & face. Not that loose one."

She later tweeted about her "cousin in Trinidad" who is refusing to take the vaccine because a friend of his claimed "his testicles became swollen" and "became impotent" as a result of getting the shot, causing his fiancé to call off their wedding. 

"So just pray on it & make sure you’re comfortable with ur decision, not bullied," Minaj added. 

My cousin in Trinidad won’t get the vaccine cuz his friend got it & became impotent. His testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding. So just pray on it & make sure you’re comfortable with ur decision, not bullied

— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) September 13, 2021

None of the vaccine skepticism sat well with the "ReidOut" host, who condemned the rapper on air.

"You have a platform, sister, that is 22 million followers, OK? I have 2 million followers. You have 22 million followers on Twitter," Reid told Minaj. "For you to use your platform to encourage our community to not protect themselves and save their lives, my God sister, you can do better than that! You got that platform -- it's a blessing that you got that! The people listen to you -- and they listen to you more than they listen to me!"

"For you to use your platform to put people in the position of dying from a disease they don't have to die from, oh my God, sister. As a fan, as a hip-hop fan, as somebody who is your fan, I'm so sad that you did that, so sad that you did that, sister. Oh, my God," Reid added. 

Minaj held no punches in her response. 

"This is what happens when you’re so thirsty to down another [B]lack woman (by the request of the [W]hite man), that you didn’t bother to read all my tweets," Minaj tweeted. "'My God SISTER do better; imagine getting ur dumb ass on tv a min after a tweet to spread a false narrative about a [B]lack woman."

The rapper went on to call Reid an "Uncle Tomiana" and a "lying homophobic c--n," invoking the MSNBC host's old blog that had a trove of homophobic and offensive posts.

"I guess I can join in the reindeer games too right? Ppl can go on tv & lie on me, I can report on them, too right?" Minaj tweeted. "Doesn’t have to be truths. It can be half truth."

Minaj also shared a screenshot of a tweet Reid wrote nearly a year ago expressing doubt in the vaccine under President Trump, writing, "Who on God's green earth would trust a vaccine by the @US-FDA?" 

"Uncle Tomiana asked who on earth would trust the US FDA guys…" Minaj added. 

Reid has yet to publicly respond to Minaj.