Hillary Clinton criticized White House press secretary Sean Spicer and Fox News host Bill O’Reilly for comments each of them made about a prominent liberal woman on Tuesday.
In an appearance on “Fox and Friends” Tuesday morning, O’Reilly claimed to be “distracted” by California Rep. Maxine Waters’ “James Brown wig.” He later apologized for the comment, which Clinton termed a “racist joke” during an event in San Francisco on Tuesday afternoon.
Maxine Waters (Getty Images)
Clinton also claimed Spicer “patronized” American Urban Radio Networks correspondent April Ryan during a testy exchange between the two during Tuesday’s White House press briefing. (RELATED: Kellyanne Conway Speaks Out After Congressman Said She Looked ‘Familiar’ On Her Knees)
“April Ryan, a respected journalist with unrivaled integrity, was doing her job just this afternoon in the White House pressroom when she was patronized and cut off trying to ask a question,” Clinton said. “One of your own California congresswomen, Maxine Waters, was taunted with a racist joke about her hair.”
“Now too many women, especially women of color have had a lifetime of practice taking precisely these indignities in stride,” Clinton added. “But why should they have to? And any woman who thinks this couldn’t be directed at her is living in a dream world.”
WATCH:
WATCH: And here’s the video of @HillaryClinton defending WH reporter @AprilDRyan and Congresswoman @MaxineWaters pic.twitter.com/VPK9doFxTe
— Yashar (@yashar) March 28, 2017
Ryan has consistently taken a confrontational style to press briefings. She once claimed that Trump said “white America” built America, but offered no evidence to support her claim.
When a Democratic congressman, Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond, made a sexist joke about White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, Clinton offered no public condemnation.
Conway argued that there would have been more outrage about Richmond’s joke — that Conway looked “familiar” on her knees in the Oval Office — if she had been a liberal woman. “And it is not just if I were a liberal woman, but if I were a pro-abortion one,” she told The Daily Caller.
Unlike her mother, Chelsea Clinton later came to Conway’s defense, calling Richmond’s joke “despicable.”