We’ve got to talk about Nathan Wade – the randy prosecutor down in Fulton County, Georgia, who decided to have an affair with his co-prosecutor on the case, Fani Willis – and his rehabilitation tour. Only too happy to help? MSNBC’s Joy Reid, who welcomed Wade to her program on Wednesday.
The Scandal
Now, those who have been following this case closely would have walked away from the sit down very confused and maybe even feeling sorry for Nathan Wade and Fani Willis given how Joy Reid framed this scandal – I mean, story.
REID: The reason there’s no trial date in Georgia is because a lawyer for one of the defendants, Mike Roman, who worked for the Trump campaign, found a novel way to stall it, one that didn’t involve the criminally accused Donald Trump, but did involve – actually, devolve into a salacious sideshow about a black woman’s personal life.
It was an attack on DA Fani Willis, removed because of an alleged improper romantic relationship with a special prosecutor she’d hired, Nathan Wade… And just like that, the focus shifted from Donald Trump trying to overturn his loss to the judgment and character of Fani Willis over a consensual workplace romance.
Okay, for those of you keeping track at home: It is not okay to talk about a black woman’s personal life, but it’s fine to have testimony about whether a former president, who is a white man, was wearing a condom when he allegedly banged a porn star. Got it? Those are Joy Reid’s rules; we’re just playing by them.
The Lies
Not surprisingly, time and time again, Joy Reid failed to call out Nathan Wade when his narrative did not add up.
REID: You were brought into the case– you came in November 1. And this was after, you know, there was the investigation, there was a special grand jury that then gets impaneled in May of 2022. At the time that you were brought on to the case, from then through the time of the grand jury, before you were brought on, did you have a personal relationship with or personal intimate relationship with Fani Willis.
WADE: Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Our relationship was professional. Our relationship grew organically over time. Um it was something that was not deliberate or intentional. Um I made the statement earlier that workplace romances are as American as apple pie, right? Um that was not to make light of the situation.
“Apple pie.” He’s just a red-blooded American man, who couldn’t keep his hands off Fani Willis. There was absolutely no romantic relationship, he says, prior to the grand jury being impaneled in May 2022. That is what he just said.
Then vs. Now
That will come as news to the old version of Nathan Wade, who testified under oath earlier this year at the hearing on the motion to disqualify him and Fani Willis from the Trump prosecution in Atlanta that the affair started at least two months prior to May 2022.
Here was a bit of the questioning from Roman’s defense attorney Ashleigh Merchant:
MERCHANT: When did your romantic relationship with Ms. Willis begin?
WADE: 2022.
MERCHANT: When?
WADE: Early 2022.
MERCHANT: So you were appointed in November of 2021.
WADE: Yes, ma’am.
MERCHANT: And your relationship started early. What’s early – January, February?
WADE: Around March.
Got that? Even his lover, DA Fani Willis, put the date months earlier than Nathan Wade is now telling Joy Reid:
WILLIS: In November of 2021, I hired him. I do not consider our relationships to have become romantic until early in 2022. Because I don’t know what date and time, I’m saying sometime between February and April of 2022.
The point is he is still lying. They lie because they know they have done wrong, and any journalist knows the most basic part of their job is to ask these questions and have their facts ready.
All of these dates are obvious lies because we know from their many texts and overnight visits long before he was hired in November 2021 that these two were having an affair while Nathan Wade was still married. And yet they are just allowed to spew their lies with impunity on MSNBC.
‘The Odor of Mendacity’
There was little to no pushback when he skirted questions. There was no push back on the well-documented lies in his divorce documents under oath. And adding insult to injury, Joy Reid and Nathan Wade decided the judge’s order decrying the “odor of mendacity” that Wade and Willis’s testimony left in the court was really code because it was actually about race.
REID: He didn’t have to add it. He could have simply said, ‘I find, for the district attorney, she can remain on the case.’ But he added some additional comments about the ‘odor of mendacity’ and other things. Do you think that was needed?
WADE: I don’t think it was necessary. I think many legal analysts and experts have said that, you know, that, that entire piece of his order was, I think, just to prove a point, which judges have a tough job. Sometimes personal feelings come out. An ‘odor mendacity,’ in all fairness, could be, could come from a lack of understanding. We could have cultural differences. I may not understand why a certain culture does a certain thing. So it could be suspicious to me.
REID: Right.
WADE: So, we’ll give him that.
“Cultural differences,” “lack of understanding,” “it was personal.” That’s why Judge Scott McAfee said the stench of lying was in his court after they testified.
Like, he didn’t understand, I guess, how black people cheat on their wives and lie about it under oath. Is that his point? Is that a black thing, sir, that this court judge just didn’t understand? Is that what you are saying?
He didn’t get how black men go and hang out at Porsche dealerships from midnight to 5am when they are closed and most definitely are not at the home of their extramarital affair partner who they then text as soon as they return home? Was it poor Judge McAfee’s “personal feelings” about you that made him assume those things?
Was it “cultural differences” that left Judge McAfee thinking maybe Nathan Wade and Fani Willis were the liars and not witness Robin Yeartie, who said they started their affair years before they admitted on the stand? She is black, too. Did Robin Yeartie not understand these “cultural differences” to which you refer, Mr. Wade? How offensive.
You lied, sir. You lied under oath. We all saw it. You should have been disbarred, and there is nothing about our “culture” that makes a white judge incapable of detecting the “odor of mendacity” when it is staring him in the face and nose in his own courtroom and you know it.
That would have been nice follow-up, Joy Reid, but you didn’t do it.
The Truth About Wade’s Divorce
But Nathan Wade is always the victim, folks. He is always the victim – even as he was asked about abandoning his spousal and child support obligations.
WADE: I’m keeping up with all my responsibilities, contrary to what people believe. I have not shirked any responsibilities. I have paid spousal support. I don’t have minor children, so there’s no reason to pay any child support. I’m doing everything that I’m supposed to do and still dealing with threats that are coming daily.
Oh, the “threats.” Poor me.
And yet legal filings in his divorce case say quite the opposite. We actually reached out to Joycelyn Wade’s legal team – something Joy Reid should have done after this appearance – and let’s just say they do not agree with Nathan Wade’s version of the events.
They told us, in part, “Mr. Wade continues his campaign of deceit in the media. The evidence will show unequivocally that he is not meeting his court-ordered financial obligations to his wife.” And Joycelyn is also adamant, in speaking with us, that they did not have an agreement to divorce when their youngest graduated high school as Nathan Wade claimed to Joy Reid.
In other words, he was cheating. He was cheating when he bedded Fani Willis, his work partner. Hello. Joycelyn’s legal team telling us that is “yet another lie Nathan Wade persists in telling.”
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 801 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.