Former first lady Michelle Obama is known for saying exactly what is on her mind, particularly when it comes to President Donald Trump.
But her latest attack on the president — comparing America under Trump to “spend[ing] the weekend with divorced dad” — was “demeaning and insulting” to many responsible and committed divorced fathers, Fox News host Sean Hannity announced.
Michelle Obama attacks Trump
Speaking with late-night TV host Stephen Colbert at a book-signing event in London, Michelle Obama said, “We come from a broken family, we’re a teenager, we’re a little unsettled and having good parents. It’s tough, sometimes you spend the weekend with divorced dad.”
“That feels like it’s fun but then you get sick. That’s what America is going through, we’re kind of living with divorced dad,” she added.
Presumably, America is in need of being rescued from Trump by the responsible mother — the Democratic Party, in Obama’s analogy.
Obama may have felt she was being clever, but her swipe at Trump missed and spurred a backlash of criticism from divorced fathers who didn’t appreciate being stereotyped.
Demeaning stereotype
Hannity pointed out how even some at CNN felt Obama made a mistake with that remark. CNN’s Dana Bash criticized the comments as “remarkably unwoke.”
Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera, a divorced dad himself, agreed with Hannity, noting that Obama’s metaphor reduced divorced dads to a “sexist stereotype” — the irresponsible parent that lets the kids run wild.
“She’s equating, she’s reduced us to a sexist stereotype with a bad parent who gives candy and lets the kids watch too much TV because we have a guilty conscience about the breakup of the marriage,” Rivera said, adding, “I think it’s a rare misstep though Sean, in fairness.”
Hannity was in no mood to let the insult slide, however, while Fox News contributor Tammy Bruce suspected the remarks were due to Obama accidentally being too honest in revealing her true thoughts on the current president.
The real truth
Bruce noted that the remarks weren’t just insulting to men, but women as well, as it played into the old stereotype that only women could be good, caring parents that are capable of raising children properly.
“The gender stereotyping that the left is normally going out against, she really destroys in that regard,” Bruce said. “And this is one of my points about the left and liberals: If you scratch the surface a little bit, you get these real opinions that are quite the opposite of what they’ve been arguing for.”
Bruce, quite accurately, offered in closing, “She’s not a sloppy woman. She said what she meant, and it was insulting, and I think it revealed a side of her that a lot of people don’t like but I think we need to keep that in mind. It’s weird how Democrats keep doing that, and keep surprising us with these kinds of opinions, isn’t it.”