Overview

• Vice President JD Vance wrote on X that Joy Reid should “show a little gratitude” and would be “a much happier person,” responding Thursday to a reposted video of her remarks on racism in the United States.
• The clip was from a March conversation with Ta-Nehisi Coates at Xavier University in which Reid discussed her immigrant mother’s realization about the limits of opportunity for Black people in America.
• Reid answered with a lengthy Substack post criticizing Vance for “wasting our time and tax money,” and she emphasized gratitude to civil-rights activists and to her mother for her sacrifices.
• In a follow-up interview published Friday, Reid delivered a profane two-word retort and said Vance misrepresented her comments while describing how her mother earned her accomplishments.
• The exchange follows weeks of friction that included Reid suggesting Vance benefited from an affirmative-action–style preference at Yale and echoes Vance’s earlier public demand that Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky say “thank you.”