Joy Reid Explains How JD Vance Got Into Yale Through Affirmative Action; Vance Responds With Meme

Brett T. | 4:30 PM on September 24, 2025

Here's an alternate headline for this news story, from X: "JD Vance Posts Stoic Photo Countering Joy Reid's Affirmative Action Claim".

Stoic photo? That's one way to call a meme.

If you were wondering why Reid was in the news, it was because of her high-profile appearance on Don Lemon's podcast. Our thanks to the Chief Nerd for watching it so we don't have to. In one segment, which seemed to really amuse Lemon, Reid claimed that Ketanji Brown Jackson, who doesn't know what a woman is, is smart on a level she's never seen before. While Jackson got into school on her intelligence alone, Vice President JD Vance was the product of affirmative action: Yale was looking for an Appalachian white male. These schools wanted mediocre white people like Vance and Justice Amy Coney Barrett as part of their DEI programs.

JOY REID: “JD Vance got into Yale because they were tired of just letting in white men from New York … from all the elite schools. They wanted an Appalachian white. That's how that man got into Yale, I promise you … That's also affirmative action and DEI.” pic.twitter.com/E69jgcotJx
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) September 24, 2025

Vance or someone on his social media team caught wind of the podcast and posted this "stoic photo" in response:

https://t.co/agmI0CLpQs pic.twitter.com/NuCp7NfiqS
— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 24, 2025

Perhaps the best social media post ever.
— MAZE (@mazemoore) September 24, 2025

That is some grade-A trolling right there.

JD beaming every JD Vance face meme directly into Joy Reid's brain. pic.twitter.com/fvzSIbPrOq
— SuperTrucker 🚛💨→💻🥷 (@supertrucker) September 24, 2025