Brooks to Huntsman girls: ‘Unless you’re as cool as Justin Timberlake, don’t do Justin Timberlake’

The Huntsman girls made another big splash on Friday when they took Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack” song and changed the lyrics to sing a song promoting their father Jon Huntsman’s bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

But New York Times columnist David Brooks wasn’t impressed. On Friday’s “All Things Considered” on NPR, Brooks hinted the song might taken some of the dignity away from the candidate’s daughters.

“Yeah, I’m a 19th century guy,” Brooks said. “Unless you’re as cool as Justin Timberlake, don’t do Justin Timberlake. It’s why the Mormon Tabernacle Choir does not do Kanye West, and so, I like dignity in daughters. And so, I never like these moments.”

Brooks’ co-panelist E.J. Dionne agreed with Brooks, but admitted they were able to get airtime for Huntsman’s candidacy.

“I, first of all, this is the first time we’ve given something close to a minute to Jon Huntsman, so good for the daughters,” Dionne said. “And the second, the Republican base is going to react exactly as that 19th century figure David Brooks just did.”

Huntsman is a former U.S. ambassador to China and a former Utah governor.

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