MSNBC’s 7:00 p.m. host did not apologize on Wednesday after some of her comments from her Monday show were called out online as Islamphobic and earned rebukes from two of the most well-known progressive members of Congress.

Two days ago, Reid analogized Trump “radicalizing” his supporters to conduct vigilante violence to extremis Muslim cleric pushing for suicide bombing, using the phrase the “way Muslims act” to describe how they are portrayed in Western media.  Her comments ignited a slow-rolling backlash the next day, gaining viral velocity after Muslim Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib both called out the MSNBC host for anti-Muslim rhetoric, with the former directly calling on Reid to apologize.

Reid briefly noted controversy on her Tuesday but did not directly address and instead only obliquely referred to “willful distortions” of her comments.

On Wednesday’s show, she waited until the last quarter of the program to bring back on her Monday guest, Newsweek editor-at-large Naveed Jamali, as well as Dalia Mogahed, from the Institute of Social Policy and Understanding and queued up the Monday clip of her comparing violent Trump supporters to Muslim extremists.

“There was a lot of conversation, particularly online, after the segment aired, some of which was frankly not in good faith,” Reid said, throwing a subtle jab back at her critics. “But some of the conversation reflected the genuine feelings of people who have been subjected to the kind of stereotyping that I just described. And who take matters like this to heart because of it. And we should be sensitive to that, and I certainly should have been sensitive to that.”

After the video of the segment in question played, Reid offered the closest thing to remorse for her comments, saying: “Not exactly the most artful way asking that question, obviously, based on the reaction. But Naveed, can you contextualize it a better way of making that point just from a national security point of view.”

Moments later, after Jamali again effectively defended Reid, she turned to her other guest, Mogahed.

“I want to let you in this and let you respond however you want to respond as well,” Reid said, segueing back to the discussion. “It is something he and I have talked about and been angry about for a long time. But the way I framed it obviously did not work. I want you to respond to me how that was taken and how that can be brought up and do you think it is a fair analogy to make or a fair question to be asked?”

After complimenting Reid for her inclusion of Muslim voices, Mogahed turned to the comments in question.

“The way that I heard your statement was intended to make the analogy which is a fair one between radicalization of Muslim extremists and the radicalization of young white men in this country,” she said. “The way that it came, the way that it landed and the way that it was heard by some people, many people, in fact, was unintentionally saying that Muslims were inherently violent or that Muslim society — the way in which Muslims act is violent. Though that was not your intention it is important to correct that notion for your millions of viewers.”

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.

from Mediaite https://ift.tt/31To27a