Former colleagues of Joy Reid described the MSNBC host as an “evil woman” who created a “toxic” work environment, according to a report published Thursday.
Reid, who has been facing backlash over waves of unearthed controversial posts from her old blog, is now being characterized as toxic and unhealthy by former WPTS radio co-host Andre Eggelletion.
“It was a very unhealthy work environment because of her attitude. She attacked me on a constant basis while I was there. I was even once threatened with physical violence during a break with her,” he told Fox News.
Eggelletion and Reid hosted “Wake Up South Florida” together from 2006 to 2007. The two were said to have clashed. One incident, where she threatened him physically, had management considering firing Reid if she didn’t change her behavior and beg Eggelletion to stay on the show.
Eggelletion’s accounts were corroborated by Lee Michaels, the former national program director for Syndication One, the parent company of WTPS. He said he spoke to the general manager about how Reid’s behavior “just can’t be tolerated” and there was an effort to mediate the situation.
But the clashes continued, and Reid allegedly once told the general manager, “Y’all want me to be his friend. I don’t want to be his motherf—–g friend.”
Reid’s controversial and homophobic comments didn’t stop at her blog posts, according to Eggelletion. She made similar homophobic slurs about Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who she called “Miss Crist,” on air, he recalled.
Old posts from Reid’s now-defunct blog have surfaced in a number of reports over the past few months, to which she either has apologized for or blamed on hackers.
[Related: Sean Hannity defends Joy Reid: Her apology should be accepted and she should keep her job]
Eggelletion isn’t convinced that Reid’s assertions that she has changed since then are sincere.
“I do believe she’s not telling the truth about who that person was. Maybe she has changed, but back then, that was one evil woman,” he said. “She said she doesn’t know who that person is – I find it very hard to believe. Very hard to believe based on my experience with her. Based on her attitudes towards me to this day.”
