While discussing Super Tuesday exit poll results, MSNBC anchors Jen Psaki, Joy Reid and Rachel Maddow mocked Republican voters in Virginia for considering immigration their top concern for the upcoming presidential election.
Jen Psaki, Joy Reid, and Rachel Maddow are laughing on MSNBC at the fact that voters in Virginia care about immigration:
Maddow: “Well, Virginia does have a border with West Virginia.”
pic.twitter.com/MDyjJuUkzn— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 6, 2024
During one exchange, Psaki said, “And if you look at some of these exit polls, I mean, I live in Virginia. Immigration was the number one issue… again, these could change.”
Psaki was interrupted by laughter from Maddow who replied, “Well, Virginia does have a border with West Virginia, a — very contested area.”
The mocking tone and statements made by the two hosts come just days after a new Gallup poll shows that 28% of Americans name immigration as the most important problem facing Americans today. That is up from 20% just a month ago.
Immigration was voted the top problem in the U.S. by the Gallup poll for the first time in five years. The government was cited as the second biggest problem and the economy was third. The group that voted for immigration as America’s top problem included 57% of Republicans, 22% of Democrats and 10% of Independents.
Reid joined in the discussion painting Republicans as racists who are more concerned about voting based on race than even for their own economic and political interests.
“They don’t vote based on economics, or based on the benefits they’re getting economically from the president,” she argued. “They are voting on race; they are voting on this idea of an invasion of brown people over the border, the idea that they can’t get the job they want.”
The tone-deaf comments by the anchors have been met with criticism from conservative and liberal voices alike. Joe Walsh, a prominent anti-Trump voice, called the segment arrogant and negative for Democrats in general.
“MSNBC talking heads laughing AT the American people,” Walsh wrote Tuesday. “Mocking them. Mocking Americans who are concerned about immigration. Pretty…out of touch. Not a good look Dems.”
.@MSNBC talking heads laughing AT the American people. Mocking them. Mocking Americans who are concerned about immigration. Pretty damn arrogant & out of touch. Not a good look Dems. https://t.co/VvZel1cDpm
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) March 6, 2024
The comments also came not long after a college student at Augusta University in Georgia, also not a border state, was killed by an illegal immigrant while jogging.
