WATCH: MSNBC’s Joy Reid Claims Ben Shapiro Is ‘Anti-Vax,’ Using Nicki Minaj To ‘Drag’ People Into ‘Anti-Vax Camp’

 On her MSNBC program, “The Reid Out” Thursday, host Joy Reid fired back at rap artist Nicki Minaj over her COVID-19 vaccine-related tweet, but this time, she tried to snare Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro, accusing Shapiro and other “right-wing bomb-throwers” of adopting Minajs as an “anti-vax” heroine in order to lure unsuspecting Americans into refusing the vaccine.

Minaj and Reid have tangled off and on since Monday night when Minaj suggested she did not accept an invitation to the Met Gala because it would involve getting the COVID-19 vaccination — the Met Gala required attendees to provide proof of vaccination — and, while she has not closed the door on the possibility of getting inoculated against COVID-19, Minaj deemed the event’s requirement unconvincing.

Minaj then claimed that an acquaintance of her family member suffered a bizarre side effect of the vaccine: enlarged testicles.

Reid said, on her program, that she was “sad” Minaj was promoting an anti-vaccination message.

“For you to use your platform to encourage our community to not protect themselves and save their lives,” commented Reid, “As a fan, I am so sad that you did that.”

Minaj responded by promoting a clip from Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, praising the rap artist for “enraging the political class” who “couldn’t let [Minaj’s decision] stand.”

Thursday night, Reid tried to suggest that, somehow, Minaj was joining “right-wing bomb-throwers” in an effort to de-legitimize the vaccine.

WATCH:

After excoriating “white nationalist-curious” and “no friend of non-white people, period” Tucker Carlson, she laid into “people like…the Ben Shapiros,” who, she claims, don’t “want Nicki Minaj to have free speech…what they want is a vehicle to drag as many of her fans into their anti-vax camp as they can.”

“They need and crave authentic members of the culture, hip hop culture,” Reid raved.

“Let’s just be clear,” Reid went on, “they look down on that culture and hate that culture and would never, ever, ever support someone like Nicki Minaj other than to pull her on to their team.”

It’s not clear what “team” Reid is referring to, but presumably, she believes Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson are “anti-vax” or in the “anti-vax” camp.

Shapiro, however, has been a proponent of vaccination — a fact recognized even by left-leaning outlets.

The Atlantic noted, in July, that Shapiro “has been a vocal proponent of vaccination all along” and that Shapiro tweeted, in early summer, urging his followers to “[g]et vaxxed. I did. My wife did. My parents did.”

Just days ago, Shapiro noted on Twitter, responding to Vice President Kamala Harris, that the vaccine “is EXTREMELY protective against hospitalization and death.”

Conservatives, of course, are not the only ones responding to Minaj’s vaccine claims. Trinidad and Tobago’s health minister noted, late Wednesday, that the government had not been informed of anyone with Minaj’s acquaintance’s particular side effect. Dr. Anthony Fauci countered Minaj’s claims in interviews earlier this week, and according to Minaj, the White House has reached out with an offer to assist her in her vaccine research.