In spring 2005, Brewer served briefly as a news reader on the Imus in the Morning radio show, which was syndicated nationally. Her tenure was brief; she became embroiled in a public feud with Don Imus after the New York Post published a gossip item[3] in which she was allegedly overheard disparaging the radio personality. Imus replied, on air, with his own disparaging remarks directed at Brewer.[3]
In August 2009, Brewer was criticized by conservative blogs for a story about a man carrying an AR-15 assault rifle at an Obama appearance in Phoenix, Arizona, on August 17.[7][8] MSNBC was accused of editing the video to conceal the race of the man, who was black, and Brewer commented "you have a man of color in the presidency and white people showing up with guns strapped to their waists or to their legs."[9][10]
In May 2010, Brewer received criticism for her comments about the Times Square car bomb attempt:
There was part of me that was hoping this was not going to be anybody with ties to any kind of Islamic country, because there are a lot of people who want to use this terrorist intent to justify writing off people who believe in a certain way or come from certain countries or whose skin color is a certain way. I mean they use it as justification for really outdated bigotry.[11][12][13][14]
On July 20, 2011, while debating the debt crisis on her MSNBC show with Representative Mo Brooks (R-AL), Brewer defended recent deficit spending, saying "We were looking at reverting into a depression at that point." When Brooks said he disagreed, Brewer to asked "Do you have a degree in economics?" Brooks replied "Yes ma'am, I do. Highest honors."[18] According to his Congressional web site, "Mo graduated from Duke University in three years with a double major in political science and economics, with highest honors in economics. In 1978, he graduated from the University of Alabama Law School."[19]
