No one can take a joke anymore? Not if you’re a Democrat.
The supposed fanatic of the hour is none other than Washington DC scout Mike Pence.
He is under fire for this joke about Pete Buttigieg’s possible presidential run: “When Pete’s two children were born, he took two months of maternity leave, after which thousands of travelers were stranded at airports, the air traffic system was shut down, planes nearly collided mid-air I mean Pete Buttigieg is the only person in the history of mankind to have had a child and we are all in postpartum depression.
Funny. TRUE. But Mr. Vice President, you forgot to mention the country’s crippling supply chain crisis.
If there is a major faux pas here, it is to use “maternity” leave instead of “paternity” leave. But you could easily attribute that to a generational gap (Pence is 63 compared to Buttigieg’s 41).
Could it be that Pence misspoke? No. It’s immediately DEFCON 1 at the White House. Complete nuclear outrage.
“The former vice president’s homophobic joke about Secretary Buttigieg was offensive and inappropriate,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, “especially since he treated women suffering of postpartum depression as a punchline”.
Please. Stop that.
No one thinks Mike Pence makes fun of postpartum women.
And he said these words during a roast, no less!
The vice president was speaking at the dinner of the Gridiron Club, one of the oldest and most prestigious gatherings of American journalists. Roasts, by definition, are meant to shock. People are supposed to say the unspeakable. That joke was pretty sweet.
The vice president was speaking at the Gridiron Club dinner (above), one of America’s oldest and most prestigious gatherings of journalists.
If there is a major faux pas here, it is to use “maternity” leave instead of “paternity” leave. But you could easily attribute that to a generational gap (Pence is 63 compared to Buttigieg’s 41).
And by the way, just because a joke is clumsy doesn’t mean it isn’t true.
What is truly offensive is an administration that supports this inaction.
As Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg is an absolute disaster. The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has no qualifications and acts like this job is beneath him, boring, just a placeholder until he can run for president again – a other work well above his skills.
Buttigieg’s belated response to the Ohio toxic train derailment – putting his feet clad in designer boots on the ground nearly three weeks after residents complained of pungent fumes, contaminated water and air, dead animals and sudden health issues – would have been death knell for anyone else with their track record.
Much like his defensive response to running the day after former President Trump. For CNN: “It’s really rich to see some of these people . . . who wouldn’t know their way around a TJ Maxx if their life depended on it, to present themselves as if they really care about the forgotten milieu of the country.
Talk about a joke. Do we really think Mayor Pete discounts stores?
He’s a transportation secretary who flies privately. Who told Americans in a hurry at the gas pump to just buy electric cars? A former Harvard-educated McKinsey consultant who has raked in between $800,000 and $1.2 million over the past two years in book and podcast deals. Whose husband said they ‘couldn’t afford the one-bedroom DC apartment plus den’ they wanted.
Speaking of Pete’s husband Chasten, he tweeted a photo of Pete sitting by their child’s crib in hospital, writing: ‘An honest question for you @Mike_Pence after your attempted joke this weekend. If your grandchild was born prematurely and put on a ventilator at two months old — their little fingers wrapped around yours as monitors beep in the background — where would you be?
Buttigieg’s belated response to the Ohio toxic train derailment – putting his feet clad in designer boots on the ground nearly three weeks after residents complained of pungent fumes, contaminated water and air, dead animals and sudden health issues – would have been death knell for anyone else with their track record.
Oh, the melodrama. Nobody’s saying Pete shouldn’t have been with their baby. They say if you can’t do the job, earn a six figure salary paid by us the taxpayers, get out. But rather than go to a sluggish, lazy, unskilled transportation secretary — a liability — who would rather tackle “racist” highways than post-pandemic shipping and airline disasters and the supply chain (shortage of baby formula, anyone?), the White House is throwing in an adapt.
Dems, increasingly humorless, pious and on the lookout for microaggressions, can’t resist the opportunity to accuse conservatives of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia. . . it goes on and on.
Lest we forget Biden on then-candidate Barack Obama in 2008: “I mean, you have the first traditional African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a good looking guy. I mean, it’s a storybook, man.
This comment? Pass.
But White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Pence “should apologize to women and LGBTQ people, who have a right to be treated with dignity and respect.” Talk about overreacting. This is particularly rich coming from one of the worst White House press secretaries in recent memory.
Jean-Pierre’s total incompetence brings to mind another unqualified recruit: Kamala Harris.
Don’t take my word for it – here’s Biden on the campaign trail: “If I get elected president. . . I’m committing to actually choosing a woman to be vice-president. Then the Democratic Party made sure they picked the right woman. “He better pick a black woman,” Democratic National Committee Black Caucus chairwoman Virgie Rollins said in 2020.
Jean-Pierre’s total incompetence brings to mind another unqualified recruit: Kamala Harris.
Top Democrats have been anguished over Kamala’s poor performance from the start. She is uninformed, unprepared, unaccomplished, runs a chaotic office with high turnover, and has a propensity to laugh at the most inappropriate times. His polls are in the toilet, with 49.5% voters down on his record, according to Five Thirty Eight. CNN is reporting that Hollywood is making the fuss for someone else on the ticket.
Even Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren is reluctant to get behind Kamala to run for Vice President again on the 2024 ticket.
And Liz got in big trouble with the ladies of The View for that, because — you guessed it — she apparently empowers racists. Elizabeth Warren, whose leftist credentials are otherwise impeccable.
Ana Navarro: “Stop playing into the hands of those who can’t stand her being the first woman, woman of color vice president, and don’t want her to succeed.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin disagreed. “I think the lack of political accomplishments she has made as vice president is cause for concern.”
The insufferable, self-righteous Sunny Hostin arrived, speaking in that overly quiet, singsong cadence that barely conceals her contempt: “I’m surprised there’s concern,” she said. “I think it has a lot to do with, she’s a black woman.”
Oh lord, let him rest!
Not everything is racist. Some jokes are just jokes.
And some people are just terrible at their jobs.
