Correspondents’ Dinner Dishes Up Controversy
Michelle Wolf may have been listed as a comedian at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, but no one is quite sure why. Her monologue, an abusive personal attack on the women of this administration, was spectacularly unfunny. And by the program’s end, the only joke, liberals agreed, was that Wolf was ever invited in the first place.
Michelle Wolf may have been listed as a comedian at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, but no one is quite sure why. Her monologue, an abusive personal attack on the women of this administration, was spectacularly unfunny. And by the program’s end, the only joke, liberals agreed, was that Wolf was ever invited in the first place.
After a string of especially vulgar lines, the Comedy Central contributor couldn’t help but notice the uncomfortable silence that followed. “Yeah, you shoulda done more research before you got me to do this,” she cracked. That was certainly the consensus on both sides of the political aisle after a performance so biting that some people got up and left. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders took the brunt of the savagery, sitting quietly on the same stage as Wolf, listening as the woman at the podium derided everything from her character to her eye makeup.
“I love you as Aunt Lydia in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’” Wolf said, referring to an evil character on the show. “Every time Sarah steps up to the podium I get excited because I’m not real sure what we’re going to get — a press briefing, a bunch of lies or divided into softball teams. I really like Sarah. I think she’s very resourceful. She burns facts, and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye. Maybe she’s born with it … maybe it’s lies.” In an especially cringe-worthy moment, Wolf compared Sanders to Uncle Tom. “I’m never really sure what to call Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Is it Sarah Sanders? Is it Sarah Huckabee Sanders? Is it Cousin Huckabee? Is it Auntie Huckabee Sanders? Like what’s Uncle Tom for white women who disappoint other white women?”
And Sanders wasn’t the only target. Wolf called the president’s daughter, Ivanka, “as helpful to women as an empty box of tampons.” She took on Kellyanne Conway, a key White House advisor, insisting she was an inveterate liar, and asked: “If a tree falls in the woods, how do we get Kellyanne under that tree?”
For the media, which is already in an uphill battle for Americans’ trust, Saturday’s dinner didn’t exactly help matters. “If the #WHCD dinner did anything tonight, it made the chasm between journalists and those who don’t believe us even wider,” tweeted the AP’s Meg Kinnard. MSNBC co-host of “Morning Joe,” Mika Brzezinski, was one of the dozens of horrified left-leaning reporters to come to Sarah’s defense. “Watching a wife and mother be humiliated on national television for her looks is deplorable.” She’s right. Not only was the profanity inappropriate for this kind of public forum, but the harassment of Sanders made more than a few of us wonder: What happened to all of those anti-bullying crusaders?
Fortunately, the president’s spokeswoman is made of tough stuff. And if the Left’s response is any indication, her grace — not Wolf’s vitriol — won the night. “That @PressSec sat and absorbed intense criticism of her physical appearance, her job performance, and so forth, instead of walking out, on national television, was impressive,” said the New York Times’s Maggie Haberman. It also perfectly exposed Trump’s opponents for the vulgar, bullying hypocrites they are. Of course, conservatives are used to being the liberal media’s punchline. They’ve endured years of scorn and ridicule for their beliefs at the hands of an elitist industry that operates from a one-sided rule book where intolerance is just “free speech” and hate is the new comedy. “Democrats love to talk about the war on women,” Sanders pointed out afterward. “The only war on women that I see is the one that’s being waged against every woman and every female that’s close to this president.”
Meanwhile, as liberals like Wolf try to redraw the lines of what’s acceptable, they’re only proving Trump right. Saturday’s diatribe deeply hurts the media’s credibility at a time when they can least afford it. Once again, it’s a major miscalculation by the president’s opponents, who insist they’ve cornered the market on civility — only to turn around and victimize the women they claim to represent. In the end, all Wolf’s attacks will have accomplished is firing up the “deplorables” — which, as Hillary Clinton can tell you, isn’t the wisest election strategy. Either way, President Trump, who’s shunned the event for two years, emerges smarter for it. Kyle Smith explains in a great column for NRO how the White House consistently manages to tap into the frustrations of Middle America.
Every year, no matter who holds the White House, the viciousness [of the correspondents’ dinner] is trained on the same side… The president has done a useful public service in exposing the sham for what it is: one of many opportunities the cultural leadership seizes, in any given year, to wheel the Trojan horse of Democratic-party propaganda into a supposedly politically neutral event. The Oscars and the Emmys and the Grammys and the Golden Globes do the same thing, but viewers have caught on and turned their attention elsewhere.
Trump, by refusing to play the game, has made everyone notice that it’s fixed. Shattering norms and breaking with established precedents isn’t always wise, but whether you attribute it to shrewd instinct or blundering, Trump’s method can be a bracing response to institutions corrupted by their own partisanship. As he did with the Oscars and the National Football League before them, Trump has forced the WHCD to take a deep breath and think about whether it really wants to continue alienating half the country.
“Put the dinner to rest or start over,” the president tweeted. It’s not a bad idea. If the media wants to be taken seriously, they ought to do the country (and themselves) a favor and pull the plug on events like this one.
Originally published here.
Changes at Home Fuel Revival Abroad
Are we beginning to see evidence of a revival of universal religious freedom? World leaders are noticing America’s about-face from the disregard of this fundamental freedom. What’s changed? As we approach the one-year anniversary of President Trump’s executive order on religious freedom, it’s becoming clear that the domestic policies of our federal government have gone beyond an armistice agreement to dismantling the Obama administration’s anti-religious expression war machine and replacing it with policies and personnel committed to protecting and promoting our First Freedom.
No longer are the Little Sisters of the Poor being forced to violate their religious convictions on life through the HHS mandate. In fact, the federal agency used by Obama to launch this attack has turned 180 degrees, creating a Conscience and Religious Freedom Division under the Office for Civil Rights to restore federal enforcement of our nation’s laws that protect the fundamental and unalienable rights of conscience and religious freedom. Small business owners like Don Vander Boon, owner of West Michigan Beef Company, are no longer forced to sacrifice their religious freedom on the altar of big government now that the Trump USDA has brought its policies in line with last May’s executive order.
The military, which the Obama administration turned into a battlefield over religious freedom, has also reversed course. The most recent example being the Air Force’s historic reversal in the case of Col. Leland Bohannon, who was denied a promotion for asking for and receiving a religious exemption from signing a certificate of spousal appreciation for a retiring master sergeant’s same-sex spouse. President Trump’s Air Force Secretary, Heather Wilson, announced Bohannon’s exoneration.
Leaders abroad are observing this restoration of religious freedom here in America. Just this past weekend, I met privately again with top Jordanian officials to discuss both the strains on their country due to the humanitarian crisis of the Syrian refugees and how a greater emphasis on religious freedom may aid in solving the crisis by attracting more religious NGOs to the country. Among the Muslim majority nations in the Middle East, Jordan has respected the freedom of worship in its government policies. But more can be done to protect religious expression. Other countries, like Egypt, are also taking note of America’s renewed priority on religious freedom.
The Obama administration replaced the promotion and protection of religious freedom with the strong-arming of countries to adopt its LGBT and anti-life agendas. This rejection of religious freedom as a priority resulted in rampant persecution and genocide. Look for the Trump administration’s policies protecting religious freedom both domestically and abroad to lead to increased international respect and protection of this fundamental human right.
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Originally published here.
Bar Policy Taps Into Conservatives’ Frustration
If Kanye West wears his “Make America Great Again” hat to a New York City bar, beware! He might not be served. When a Trump supporter sued The Happiest Hour for saying he wasn’t welcome, a Manhattan judge sided with the bar. As far as the court is concerned, if a business wants to bounce conservatives, it’s welcome to.
The incident happened in West Village the month Trump was inaugurated. Greg Piatek was in town to visit the 9/11 memorial and said he wore his MAGA hat to The Happiest Hour to grab a drink. Instead, what he got was kicked out! According to his testimony, a staffer told him, “Anyone who supports Trump — or believes in what you believe — is not welcome here! And you need to leave right now because we won’t serve you!”
The 31-year-old accountant took the bar to court, saying it “offended his sense of being American.” That may be, Justice David Cohen pointed out, but there’s no law on the books protecting against political discrimination. As ridiculous (and ill-advised) as it may be to turn away conservatives, we support the owners’ right to operate how they see fit. If liberals want to hurt themselves by alienating customers, that’s their choice. But it should also be a choice that Christians are allowed to make when it comes to things like same-sex weddings.
Unfortunately, the same people cheering Cohen’s ruling are, in many cases, the same ones who want to force bakers to create custom cakes that violate their faith. For shop owners like Jack Phillips, it’s all the more maddening to be hauled to court by LGBT activists when you see that they have no trouble embracing the freedom to believe when it comes to their own agenda. And unlike the liberal owners of this bar, Jack, Barronelle Stutzman, and so many others didn’t turn clients away — they happily offered to sell them anything in their stores. They didn’t deny anyone service; they simply asked not to participate in a ceremony they morally oppose.
When Christians try to exercise the same freedom that Sophie Theallet did when she refused to dress the First Lady, they’re threatened with thousands of dollars, jail time, or both! I’m fine with designers declining to dress the Trumps or bars refusing service to Republicans — but I’m not fine with the double standard.
Like most conservatives, I may disagree with Theallet and The Happiest Hour, but I support their right of conscience. No one should be forced to give up their constitutional rights to do their job. But instead of singling out conservatives for punishment, it’s time to apply the same freedom to everyone. The Left cannot continue to light a same-sex unity candle with the match it’s taking to the First Amendment. Tolerance is for everyone — or it isn’t tolerance at all.
Originally published here.
This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.
