Proving that there’s nothing too small that the media won’t attack the current administration for, Washington Post gossip columnist Emily Heil bashed the Vice President for his Valentine’s Day gift choice, in an article for today’s Post.
Heil’s condescending piece was dripping with sarcasm, right from the headline, “Mike Pence bought a Valentine’s Day gift for his wife at . . . CVS.” In case you missed the subtle slam, Heil opens with this snarky tidbit:
“Hey, isn’t that … Vice President Pence, on Wednesday night dropping by a retail spot known for its selection of gifts every woman loves?”
She goes on to note sightings of the VP yesterday at a CVS down the street from the White House. CBS White House reporter Jacqueline Alemany apparently caught up with the cashier of the store, who informed her that Pence was buying a last minute gift for his wife.
Heil’s condescension was palpable, as she wrote, “Was it a Whitman’s sampler? One of those teddy bears clutching a cluster of faux flowers?”
The CBS reporter apparently cleared up the mystery for the Post columnist in a follow-up email. Both female reporters grimaced at Pence’s choice of gift for his wife: pink roses and carnations. The horror!
...the cashier informed her Pence bought pink roses. She still fears Pence might have made an errant flower choice, because she noticed there were also pink carnations (ew!) in the box where the Veep had gotten his blooms. 'While I desperately hope he got the roses over carnations, I only have a single source on that,' she wrote.
While Heil mocked the Vice President for going to buy flowers for his wife at the drugstore, she found a single tweet from former President Obama to Michelle Obama worthy of gushy praise.
In the same column of today’s paper, Heil and co-writer Helena Andrews-Dyer prominently displayed a picture of the couple with the tweet and a caption praising the couple’s “social media PDA”:
Happy Valentine’s Day, @MichelleObama. You make every day and every place better. pic.twitter.com/aWvyytR7Mm
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) February 14, 2018
The Post gossip columnists wrote:
Former President Barack Obama continuing his yearly tradition of social media PDA. Following suit (and perhaps one-upping her husband a bit), former first lady Michelle Obama dedicated a playlist to 44 to mark the occasion, choosing 44 love songs by some of the couple’s favorite artists including Janelle Monae, Beyonce and Stevie Wonder.
Heil’s partisan politics have reared their ugly head many times in the past. Besides this petty takedown of Pence’s everyman gesture, she ironically has praised the Obamas for their lavish lifestyles while attacking members of the Trump administration guilty of the same thing.
For instance, Heil attacked Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s fiancee last June for wearing diamond jewelry, yet fawned over the Obamas 8.1 million dollar rental home and ignored the 65 million dollar book deal the couple made around the same time. As NewsBusters has noted many times before, the former first family’s lavish vacations were touted by the media as positive stories.
