GOP strategist Liz Mair, who is no fan of President Trump and even ran a Super PAC to take him down in 2016, gave what we think is probably the clearest takedown of Michelle Wolf and her jokes aimed at Sarah Huckabee Sanders at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
First up, on why “smokey eye” — despite Wolf claiming it was a compliment — was really a sexist attack on Sanders’ appearance:
For the record, here’s the problem w the “smoky eye” comment. It emphasizes the notion that GOP women are all about appearance not substance
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) April 29, 2018
It is absolutely denigrating Sarah Huckabee Sanders as a professional and making her out to be a dummy literally masquerading a makeup. https://t.co/P6kwmC0CkD
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) April 29, 2018
And whatever you think of Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ politics or choice of employer, it’s just inaccurate to depict her that way. https://t.co/5q2Tb886Ov
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) April 29, 2018
Usually jokes are funny when there’s a kernel of truth. Here, there wasn’t. So in addition to being mean-spirited that’s why joke failed. https://t.co/C5CFfLNP96
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) April 29, 2018
And Mair went on to explain that she was hearing from liberal contacts who watched “The Handmaid’s Tale” and understood the “Aunt Lydia” joke who still thought it was a joke calling Sanders a “fat lesbian”:
Interesting: Already received some fan mail from a liberal @msnbc watcher who majored in English lit who agrees it was a “fat lesbian” knock
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) April 29, 2018
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This is the last thing I'm going to tweet about the WHCD stuff: I think liberals are miscalculating what a bunch of liberal women think about the "Aunt Sarah" line. I'm hearing from enough that feel strongly enough to email, etc., that this much is clear to me (thread)
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) April 30, 2018
There are a lot of women out there who hate Trump, don't have any love for SHS, who absolutely interpreted the joke as saying she was a fat lesbian and thought it was crass and bad form for a woman to be speaking of another woman that way.
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) April 30, 2018
The smokey eye thing is more offensive just to conservative/R/Trumpite women who often feel we're denigrated as stupid bimbos who only get where we are bc we're good at doing our hair/makeup. But the Aunt Sarah thing isn't playing well w some older, well-read liberal women.
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) April 30, 2018
If the joke wasn't intended to read as comparing her appearance to that as a fat lesbian, then Wolf should have written a different joke that wouldn't be so misunderstood, including by people who she obviously thought would find her lines clever, amusing and on-point– and didn't
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) April 30, 2018
And:
Thanks @Mediaite for the coverage, but actually, I was making the point that to a large number of people who HAD read the book, the joke sounded like Wolf was calling SHS a fat lesbian. https://t.co/584II5COM7
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) April 30, 2018
Case closed.
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Related:
WAAAH! Michelle Wolf doubles down on SHAMEFUL, tries shifting blame to MEDIA for bullying Sarah Sanders (ha!) https://t.co/Skuxmffcso
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) April 30, 2018
'Big time fail'! WHCA president's statement about Michelle Wolf's monologue TRIGGERS anti-Trump Resistance https://t.co/kyXVynr8mn
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) April 30, 2018
Take a second to marvel at how James Woods juxtaposes Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Michelle Wolf in just ONE tweet https://t.co/tvDhetzHiZ
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) April 30, 2018
Shannon Watts accuses Maggie Haberman and Mika Brzezinski of spreading 'fake news' and our day is made https://t.co/u6j0TbX839
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) April 29, 2018
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