Appearing on The Breakfast Club Tuesday, former MSNBC host Joy Reid floated the idea that Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon might bring more stability to the Middle East. According to Reid, a nuclear-armed Iran could act as a deterrent — calming tensions rather than escalating them.
The failed cable news host argued there was no justification for Israel’s targeted aerial campaign against the Islamic Republic — or the follow-up U.S. strike aimed at crippling its nuclear program — conveniently reframing Iran’s long, documented history of aggression against both Israel and the United States. For decades, the regime has orchestrated attacks of varying scale and method, all while advancing a nuclear program that resists any meaningful international oversight. Historically, Iran has waged proxy wars against Israel through groups like Hezbollah and Hamas. But in recent years, it has also directly targeted the U.S., supplying explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) — a deadly type of IED — used to kill at least 196 American troops and injure nearly 900 in Iraq between 2005 and 2011.
The backlash was immediate.
Foreign policy experts and historians widely slammed Reid’s claim, arguing that nuclear proliferation in the Middle East would do the opposite. A nuclear Iran would almost certainly ignite an arms race across the region, prompting Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey to pursue their own nuclear programs.
Critics also pointed to Iran’s ongoing support for proxies like Hezbollah and the Houthis — terror groups that would feel emboldened by a nuclear umbrella. With greater cover from their puppet masters, these militias could ramp up their aggression unchecked, further destabilizing an already volatile region.
A Theocracy With Apocalyptic Beliefs
Of course, Iran is not just another authoritarian state — it is a Shiite Islamic theocracy. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is an unelected cleric who holds ultimate authority over Iran’s military, judiciary, media, and foreign policy. Democratic norms don’t apply. Even Iran’s president answers to the clerical regime.
Fundamentalist religious fervor drives nearly every aspect of Iran’s foreign affairs. That includes routine calls by the regime for Israel’s destruction and branding the U.S. as “the Great Satan.” Intelligence analysts across the political spectrum have long warned that Iran’s leadership is not governed by the same rational actor theory that makes deterrence possible with secular states.
Some influential Iranian clerics even subscribe to apocalyptic beliefs — including the idea that war and chaos could hasten the return of the Mahdi, or “Hidden Imam.” In that context, the idea of Iran being a stabilizing nuclear power isn’t just misguided. It’s dangerous.
A History of Dubious Takes
This isn’t Reid’s first foray into historical revisionism. In March, she bizarrely claimed that Canada would defeat the U.S. in a hypothetical war — comparing a fictional invasion by President Donald Trump to Hitler’s catastrophic invasion of the Soviet Union.
“They burned the White House down in 1814 and won the war,” she claimed. “They beat us.”
Historians were quick to note that Canada wasn’t even a country in 1814, and it was British troops — not Canadians — who torched the White House. The War of 1812 is generally considered to have ended in a stalemate.
Despite the backlash, Reid doubled down — citing Canada’s size, rugged terrain, and comparable gun ownership rates as reasons it could hold its own against the U.S.
Diversity, Equity, and… Nukes?
Reid hasn’t yet explained how religiously extreme regimes with state-sponsored terror ties are somehow more deterrable than secular nation-states. Even critics of Trump’s recent airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites largely agree: a nuclear Iran is a red line for global stability.
But maybe that’s the point. If the goal is a DEI-style arms race, Reid’s vision of equity through mutually assured destruction could be inevitable.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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She has ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE ABOUT WHAT SHE IS TALKING ABOUT! None whatsoever. Who does she think has been almost exclusively behind ALL the problems in the middle east for the last 45 years? And while the current regime is in charge, it will begin to happen again. Maybe not immediately but will not be long.
Constipation of the brain, diarrhea of the mouth.
What an IDIOT! Just proves you don’t need common sense to have her job, just look at Hank Johnson!
When people retire, they travel, get a hobby, or just stay home and start a garden; if people lose their jobs, they go in another direction and concentrate on a new one. But people that have been leading with their mouths for a period of time, can’t seem to move on. We never get rid of them. They are like cockroaches.