Joy Reid Uses Her Show to Apologize

MSNBC anchor Joy Reid still doesn't believe she wrote the latest homophobic posts to surface from her old blog, but she apologized today for much of what she does remember saying.

"I can only say that the person I am now is not the person I was then," said Reid during her show, AM Joy, on Saturday morning.

A number of homophobic and transphobic writings first surfaced last year from Reid's time as a commentator in Florida. Some she takes responsibility for, while others that became public this month she claims are the result of someone hacking her blog.

"Many of you have seen these blog posts circulating online and in social media," she told viewers. "Many of them are homophobic, discriminatory, and outright weird and hateful." Reid says a friend first discovered them in December and forwarded links. "I was stunned," she said. "Frankly, I couldn't imagine where they could have come from or whose voice that was."

Reid said she hired cyber security experts to track down evidence her blog must've been hacked.

"And the reality is they have not been able to prove it," she conceded on Saturday. The Daily Beast--which also suspended Reid's column on the site--reported earlier this week that Reid's claim to be hacked couldn't be proven. "But here is what I know. I genuinely don't believe I wrote those hateful things, because they are completely alien to me. But I can definitely understand, based on things I have tweeted and have written in the past, why some people don't believe me."

Reid then spent much of her time explaining her upbringing and acknowledging her past homophobia.

"I have not been exempt from being dumb or cruel or hurtful to the very people want to advocate for," she said. "I own that. I get it. And for that I am truly, truly sorry." She apologized specifically to the transgender people for once having made transphobic cracks about Ann Coulter, who she also apologized to.

Reid recounted the story of one gay friend who she had failed in particular.

"I can remember a friend of mine, my freshman year in college, telling me he was gay, and my knee-jerk reaction being that it was so disappointing to the women he could have married," recalled Reid. "He was so hurt, he didn't speak to me for months. I am heartbroken that I didn't do better back then."

Time will tell whether the apology is enough to repair the damage to Reid, with PFLAG rescinding an award for allyship that it had planned to give. After the apology aired, Reid is already receiving support online from colleagues.

Watch the entire apology below.