MSNBC’s “AM Joy” mixed up their Richard Spencers on Sunday morning when they accidentally put up a picture of white supremacist Richard Spencer during a piece about Richard V. Spencer, the former Navy secretary who was fired by the Trump Administration over the president’s decision to reverse the demotion of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher.
“We are very deeply sorry for that mistake,” host Joy-Ann Reid said on the broadcast shortly before ending the segment.
MSNBC showed white supremacist Richard Spencer instead of former Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer. Joy Reid later issued an on-air correction. pic.twitter.com/BAZGTaoXl9
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) December 1, 2019
Reid and her guests were discussing the Washington Post op-ed written by former Sec. Spencer in which he criticized Trump’s intervention in the court martial of Gallagher, who was found guilty of multiple war crimes, including posing for a picture with the corpse of a teenage ISIS fighter. Gallagher was stripped of his SEAL Trident status and demoted to petty officer first class, but Trump used his powers as commander in chief to reverse the demotion.
“The Navy will NOT be taking away Warfighter and Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher’s Trident Pin,” Trump tweeted last week. “This case was handled very badly from the beginning. Get back to business!”
Spencer, who was nominated Naval Secretary by Trump in 2017, was then fired by Defense Secretary Mark Esper for going outside the chain of command to request a further review process of Gallagher’s SEAL status with the White House. In his Post op-ed, Spencer acknowledged he was wrong to go outside the chain of command but called Trump’s intervention a “shocking and unprecedented intervention in a low-level review.”
“It was also a reminder that the president has very little understanding of what it means to be in the military, to fight ethically or to be governed by a uniform set of rules and practices,” he wrote.
CORRECTION: Earlier on #AMJoy as we were talking about former Navy secretary Richard Spencer we mistakenly showed the wrong image of white supremacist Richard Spencer. We are very, deeply sorry for that mistake. pic.twitter.com/l3QW2lNP0b
— Formerly 'AM JOY' on @MSNBC (@amjoyshow) December 1, 2019
But while discussing that op-ed, MSNBC presented a quote from Richard V. Spencer’s op-ed next to a picture of the other Richard Spencer, who also made headlines this past month after fellow alt-right personality turned rival Milo Yiannopoulos leaked a tape on YouTube that he claimed contained audio of the white supremacist using racist slurs against Jews and African-Americans. The audio was recorded in the immediate aftermath of the 2017 Charlottesville riots, with Spencer vowing to return to the Virginia town for additional far-right protests.
Watch the MSNBC mixup in the tweet above.