The debate over a $15 minimum wage
With millions around the country calling for a $15 minimum wage, small business owners fear their businesses will be crippled while minimum wage workers have hope for better days ahead.
Far-left MSNBC anchor Joy Reid continued her habit of smearing Black conservatives on Monday, suggesting Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., was only at a press conference opposing a minimum wage increase to create a "patina of diversity."
Reid played a clip of Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., explaining Republican opposition to a $15 minimum wage as part of the $1.9-trillion COVID stimulus passed in the House. With Scott standing behind him, Thune said such a measure would hurt efforts to get Americans who lost jobs in the pandemic back to work.
"You've got to love Tim Scott standing there to provide the patina of diversity over that round of words, that basket full of words," Reid told Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.
MSNBC'S JOY REID BLASTED FOR REFERRING TO JUSTICE THOMAS AS 'UNCLE CLARENCE'
Scott's press secretary Caroline Anderegg flagged the exchange and blasted Reid, saying Scott was "not a prop."
"Unsurprising that someone like Joy would stoop that low--I guess that's what you do in the absence of a substantive policy critique. The senator has been leading the fight against the misguided Dem wage hike for weeks," she tweeted, with a clip of Scott addressing the same press conference as Thune.
Scott said the "last thing" Democrats should do is increase costs on businesses in the midst of a pandemic. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated hiking the minimum wage to $15 would cost the economy about 1.4 million jobs and lift 900,000 Americans out of poverty.
Democrats want to increase the federal minimum wage to that number, but they were dealt an almost fatal blow when the Senate’s parliamentarian ruled that the hike should not be included in their version of the stimulus bill.
"There's no worse response to a pandemic than to eliminate jobs," Scott said.
GOP national spokesman Paris Dennard slammed Reid in a tweet for a "cheap shot."
MSNBC did not respond to a request for comment.
In 2012, Reid penned an "open letter" to Scott upon his appointment to the U.S. Senate to not be a "token."
DEMOCRATS SCRAP PLAN TO PENALIZE CORPORATIONS OVER $15 MINIMUM WAGE
Reid also slurred Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who is African American, as "Uncle Clarence" during live election coverage in November, and she also referred to him that way in tweets.
It was a reference to "Uncle Tom," a derogatory term for Blacks viewed as too deferential to Whites. Despite her brazen comments, MSNBC was silent on the matter.
Reid also embarrassed the network in 2018 when homophobic and offensive blog posts she wrote in the 2000s were discovered by internet sleuths, and she bizarrely claimed she had been hacked. After a brief investigation, Reid admitted there was no proof to her claim.
She apologized but did not accept full responsibility for her posts, which also dabbled in Islamophobia and conspiracy theories. Adding to the strangeness of the situation was Reid had admitted just months earlier to similar posts from the same time period she was a Florida political blogger.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Reid has since been rewarded with a primetime show and served as a lead host for 2020 political coverage alongside Rachel Maddow and Nicolle Wallace.
Fox News' Edmund DeMarche contributed to this report.