Put Ben Shapiro down as a negative regarding President Donald Trump’s meeting with Kim Kardashian on prison reform:
Celebrity worship is stupid, whether it's being done by Obama or Trump https://t.co/JQ9gARbVZ2
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) May 30, 2018
Ben was responding to this photo from Trump’s timeline:
Great meeting with @KimKardashian today, talked about prison reform and sentencing. pic.twitter.com/uOy4UJ41JF
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2018
Ben later tweeted that conservatives should be consistent and if we, for example, mocked the Obama celebrity presidency for meeting with celebrities, we should mock Trump, too:
If you mocked Obama for bringing in George Clooney to talk Middle East policy and you're celebrating Trump for bringing in Kim Kardashian to talk prison reform, you're doing it wrong.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) May 31, 2018
There are fair criticisms to this:
Celebrity activists attract attention for causes that would otherwise get no coverage, we've seen lines between politics and pop culture blurred beyond recognition for decades, and I like prison reform, so I'm just not that bothered by the "Kim Summit" in the Oval Office.
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) May 31, 2018
But Ben is standing by his view:
1. Celebrity activists should be demurring to actual experts, not treated as experts.
2. That blurring sucks.
3. It depends on the definition of "prison reform."— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) May 31, 2018
Anyway, enter Turning Point USA spox Candace Owens, who was not very happy with Ben’s tweets and which led to this back-and-forth between the two:
Kim has been working tirelessly to get a black woman pardoned from prison. He is not “worshipping” a celebrity, he is working with an American who is dedicated to prison reform in the black community. https://t.co/imDTCcpPsr
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) May 30, 2018
Candace, I ripped Obama consistently for using celebrities as "experts" on topics various and sundry. The standard doesn't change because the president is Trump. https://t.co/4LkDlNOuct
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) May 31, 2018
What @KimKardashian is working on is undeniably admirable. She’s not fighting for climate change, she’s fighting for a grandmother who is spending life-in-prison for a vastly unjust, over-sentencing. @benshapiro is there something more noble she should be doing w/ her platform?
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) May 31, 2018
I'm not questioning her motivations. I'm questioning the President of the United States doing photo ops with her. This isn't particularly complicated. https://t.co/MtYuNv1Urv
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) May 31, 2018
1) Don’t talk down to me. Ever again.
2) This was not a photo-op. The POTUS takes a pic w/ every person that he meets with in the Oval Office.
3)You have a way of complicating everything in an effort to be right about things that simply don’t matter.
4) It’s getting old. https://t.co/pNRhzW8CfC— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) May 31, 2018
Hold up. When did Ben “talk down” to Candace? And yes, it was a photo-op.
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