Self-styled feminist Cory Booker was on the brink of tears while grilling Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen earlier this week.
The one-sided exchange featured Booker interrupting and criticizing Nielsen harshly. At one point in the hearing, Booker accused Nielsen of “silence and amnesia” for not recalling, to his satisfaction, the comments Trump made about immigrants from third world countries.
The Republican National Committee accused Booker of talking down to Nielsen because she was a woman, saying he was “mansplaining.”
The RNC attack on Booker said:
“Picture it A male Republican senator spends his entire 10 minutes ‘mansplaining’ the female DHS secretary about immigration policy, throws around the term ‘conscientious stupidity,’ yells at her the only time she tries to speak, and concludes his diatribe without even asking her to respond.
There’d be so many triggered Democrats that there’d be a hashtag within minutes, campus protests across the country, and the topic-du-jour for celebrities at Hollywood’s next award show.”
The RNC seems to be suggesting that when it comes to a male senator berating a woman cabinet official, that there’s a double standard depending on the political party.
It’s a little insulting to say that I should be treating cabinet secretaries one way or another depending upon their gender.
And so, these are political operatives. I wish they would come out and deal with real issues like equal pay for equal work. But this is politics.
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