MSNBC’s Reid: Donald, Melania Used the White House in ‘Offensive’ Way — ‘These Are Not Monarchs’

Tuesday on MSNBC, anchor Joy Reid criticized the second night of the Republican National Convention by saying President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump used the White House in an “offensive” way.

Reid said, “I was struck by the fact that, yes, Melania Trump made those remarks, but she made them in front of a crowd of like a thousand people. There weren’t that many shots of the way this was shot. They didn’t show the crowd. But when they did show the crowd, I don’t think there were a whole lot of masks. I was struck, and I have to say not in a good way by the use and, in my view, misuse of the White House. They surrounded themselves with the trappings of the power that, in theory, they were given by the American people. These are not monarchs. This is not their property. You know, this was not an episode of “Cribs.” I didn’t need Melania Trump strolling down, you know, the gallery way as if she’d just come from the living room in her home. But they have used the property of the American people, these sacred properties that are owned by the American people, for politics tonight in a way that I think is offensive. I think is wrong, and I was particularly —as bad as this felt to me.”

She added, “I have to be honest, you know, I’m not a fan of Melania Trump. I think the birtherism thing sticks in my craw in a way I can’t get out. But even worse was the naturalization ceremony that really stuck out to me tonight as the thing that is staying with me as I walk away from this. My mother did that ceremony. When my mother came from Guyana, she was here for about 16 years before she became a naturalized American citizen. And that ceremony has such deep meaning for the people who become Americans. Donald Trump made that ceremony about him. He made that ceremony about celebrating Donald Trump.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN