Weeks after being benched by MSNBC after making misogynistic comments about Bernie Sanders supporters, Dr. Jason Johnson is out at digital outlet The Root, The Daily Beast has confirmed.
The political commentator appears to have removed the affiliation from his Twitter bio, and his contact information no longer appears on The Root’s authors page. Sources at The Root confirmed that he is no longer employed by the site.
Johnson, who served as politics editor of the influential African-American-focused news and culture website owned by G/O Media, drew widespread outrage last month after claiming “racist white liberals” support Sanders, who has done “nothing for intersectionality.”
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“I don’t care how many people from the island of misfit black girls you throw out there to defend you,” he added in the Feb. 21 appearance on SiriusXM’s The Karen Hunter Show.
His comments, particularly those about black women who support Sanders, resulted in calls for his firing as a paid contributor for MSNBC, where he had become a fixture of Democratic primary analysis. “I hope we can have political disputes without engaging in open racism and sexism,” Sanders’ national press secretary Briahna Joy Gray tweeted about Johnson. “This misogynoir is disappointing, but not surprising from [him].”
In a statement on Twitter, the political commentator apologized, saying his comments were “harmful and unnecessary.”
Several days later, The Daily Beast reported that MSNBC had quietly benched Johnson. After making nearly 40 on-air appearances in the first two months of 2020, including post-game coverage of the several Democratic primary debates and votes, the Morgan State University professor was nowhere to be found during MSNBC’s coverage of the Nevada caucuses.
He has yet to return to MSNBC’s air.
