There no group of people who receive more scorn by liberals in the media than female Republicans. A woman that dares think outside of the media’s progressive pigeonhole is immediately put in their crosshairs. Over the last few days, the media have created a new line of attack off the recent arrest of Jeffrey Epstein for the sex trafficking of minors and the renewed attention to the billionaire financier’s connections to President Trump and Labor Secretary Alex Acosta.
For the media, these connections are enough to suggest that female Republicans do not care about the victims of Epstein. On a Wednesday edition of Morning Joe, co-host Mika Brzezinski and former Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill cynically attacked Ivanka Trump, and Senators Martha McSally and Joni Ernst, herself a victim of sexual assault, for supposedly not caring about the abuse of children:
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: One of her big platforms is sex trafficking and she has held all of these little press conferences where she puts herself with people who are fighting sex trafficking. Let me explain that her father's former friend that he knew for decades is now, you know, being finally taken to task on these issues and there's a lot of terms being thrown around here. So for Joni Ernst, the other female Senator, for Ivanka Trump, we're not talking about underaged women, that’s an incorrect term, we're talking about children. We're talking about the rape, the abuse of children--
JOE SCARBOROUGH: And the trafficking.
BRZEZINSKI: -- And the trafficking of children. So Ivanka, a call out to you, we need your help. Since this is your platform, we would very much like for you to care about these children who were raped and assaulted at the hands of grown men who thought they could get away with it, apparently, because they had the law wired. Claire, do I have anything wrong here and is my terminology in the legal field correct, this is sexual abuse and rape of children, correct, it's not underaged women? What does that mean?
This is a rather low attack, even for Brzezinski. Of course, the segment did not once mention Bill Clinton’s long-time friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, instead jumping right to the guilt by association attacks against three women just for being Republicans.
The full transcript is below. Click "expand" to read more.
Morning Joe
07/10/2019
7:11 A.M. Eastern
CLAIRE MCCASKILL: Well, it seems to me that a couple of likely people that are really sweating it right now are Joni Ernst, the Senator in Iowa, where Donald Trump is underwater I think 14 points if I’m right, Steve. I think he's significantly underwater in Iowa. Martha McSally out in Arizona who is an appointed senator, not an elected Senator, she lost her election. I think those two women senators who are in tough tough races--
MIKE BARNICLE: Susan Collins.
MCCASKILL: -- Another good example. I think all three of those women are in a tough spot if they are going to talk about sex trafficking and they're not going to stand up on this. I think they're going to hear about it over and over and over again next year.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Claire, so add Ivanka Trump to that.
MCCASKILL: Yep, yep.
BRZEZINSKI: One of her big platforms is sex trafficking and she has held all of these little press conferences where she puts herself with people who are fighting sex trafficking. Let me explain that her father's former friend that he knew for decades is now, you know, being finally taken to task on these issues and there's a lot of terms being thrown around here. So for Joni Ernst, the other female Senator, for Ivanka Trump, we're not talking about underaged women, that’s an incorrect term, we're talking about children. We're talking about the rape, the abuse of children--
JOE SCARBOROUGH: And the trafficking.
BRZEZINSKI: -- And the trafficking of children. So Ivanka, a call out to you, we need your help. Since this is your platform, we would very much like for you to care about these children who were raped and assaulted at the hands of grown men who thought they could get away with it, apparently, because they had the law wired. Claire, do I have anything wrong here and is my terminology in the legal field correct, this is sexual abuse and rape of children, correct, it's not underaged women? What does that mean?
