During Monday’s Ingraham Angle, host Laura Ingraham and her panel discussed CNN political analyst Kirsten Powers’s characterization of white women who voted for President Trump as racists who benefit from the patriarchy. Ingraham opened the segment by playing a clip of Powers from three years ago, back when she was a Fox News contributor and promoting her book, The Silencing: How The Left is Killing Free Speech.
According to Powers in 2015: “It’s one thing just to be intolerant and have your own views and just say...I’m not interested in what other people think and I’m not going to talk to them. I think that’s a problem and that's bad; it’s an extra step to say that people cannot say or express things that you disagree with.”
Once that clip finished, Ingraham teed up the clip of Powers from the present, noting how “Powers is doing her own silencing and berating white women who voted for Trump.”
Conservative commentator, former Powers sparring partner, and Washington Times columnist Monica Crowley said that she was “incredibly disappointed in her remarks here,” adding that “she seems to have dutifully submitted to CNN and its insane, dishonest agenda.” Crowley joked that, based on her old pal's logic, “if you voted for Mrs. Clinton, you are a liar and a lawbreaker.”
Liberal guest Rochelle Ritchie said that she did not agree with Powers’s assertion that “all white women that voted for Trump are racist.” She added that “I think that those women that voted for Trump where he’s been accused of racism, I think they don’t care if he is because it does not impact their everyday lives.” Ritchie also insisted that she was “not really sure” why Powers made those comments because “quite frankly this is a system that she has benefited from as a white woman.”
When Ritchie said that it surprised her that women voted for President Trump in spite of his “misogynistic comments,” Ingraham pointed out the left’s double standard: “Liberals didn’t care about any of this after Bill Clinton, right? That wasn’t really a concern back then, that women can’t support Bill Clinton because look what he did.”
Since making the switch from Fox News to CNN, Powers has made denigrating statements towards white men and Trump-supporting women, once describing them as “hypocrites.” It looks like the one-time moderate Powers has joined a long list of media personalities and life-long Republicans who have come down with a bad case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
A transcript of the relevant portion of Monday’s edition of The Ingraham Angle is below. Click “expand” to read more.
The Ingraham Angle
11/19/18
10:52 p.m. Eastern
KIRSTEN POWERS: It’s one thing to just be intolerant and have your own views and say I’m just not, I’m not interested in what other people think and I’m not going to talk to them. I think that’s a problem and that’s bad; it’s an extra step to say that people cannot say or express things that you disagree with and that’s what this book is about. It’s about this, this…not only did they not want to hear it, they don’t want anyone else to hear it.
LAURA INGRAHAM: Now, that was Kirsten Powers when she was selling a book called The Silencing: How The Left is Killing Free Speech. She felt very strongly about it at the time. She actually wrote that in the book, you know, the book title. And now how things have changed. Just three years. Now Kirsten Powers is doing her own silencing and berating white women who voted for Trump.
POWERS: They will say, well, I’m not racist. I just voted for him because, you know, I didn’t like Hillary Clinton and I just want to say that that’s not…that doesn’t make you not racist. It actually makes you racist.
INGRAHAM: Okay, you follow that logic? We didn’t even get to the patriarchy part of that. All right, joining me now with reaction, Monica Crowley, Washington Times Opinion Editor and Democratic Strategist Rochelle Ritchie. Monica, let’s start with you. Kirsten isn’t the only pundit making this claim but she might be the most surprising given some of her past work. Your thoughts?
MONICA CROWLEY: I have known Kirsten for years and I like and respect her very much. But I’m incredibly disappointed in her remarks here. She seems to have dutifully submitted to CNN and its insane, dishonest agenda. I mean, there are two things that are ludicrous on its face in her remarks about, well, if you voted for Donald Trump, particularly if you are a white woman, that somehow makes you a racist. The first, Laura, is that it’s the presumption Donald Trump himself is a racist which clearly he is not. That is all part of this massive defamation effort launched against this President from day one and only fools believe that. The second part of this is if you voted for him, you are a racist. Well then by that logic, Laura, if you voted for Mrs. Clinton, you are a liar and a lawbreaker. If you voted for Donald Trump, you are a racist, I mean, or a rapist. It is patently absurd and it doesn’t follow any logic whatsoever and I’m just very disappointed.
INGRAHAM: Yeah, well, I am beyond disappointed because it’s…what she’s doing is generalizing and stereotyping, which is what the left says that conservatives routinely do. You see, I think you can be a woman and be liberal, conservative, black conservative, white conservative, white liberal. It’s about what you believe. And Rochelle, I want to go to you on this. To say that women who voted for Trump are racist. She also said they are oppressed because they are part of the patriarchy. Then she said they benefit from the patriarchy. We don’t have time to play that part of the sound bite. That didn’t even make sense to me. They are oppressed but then they benefit from it. Which is it? Your reaction?
ROCHELLE RITCHIE: Well, look, you know, Laura, I’m not going to sit here and say that white women, all white women that voted for Trump are racist. I don’t believe that, so that’s not going to come out of my mouth. What I will say is that I think that those women that voted for Trump where he’s been accused of racism, I think they don’t care if he is because it does not impact their everyday lives. Now taking race out of this, just not talking about white women but talking about women in general that voted for Trump, you know, it surprises me only not because of their race, it surprises me because of the misogynistic comments that have come from Trump and yet he has still been able to have some sort of support from white women or women in general. So that's the big thing to me. I’m not really sure, you know, why Kirsten made these, made these comments because quite frankly this is a system that she has benefited from as a white woman.
INGRAHAM: Yeah but liberals didn’t care about any of this after Bill Clinton, right? He became a global brand after being impeached, after, I mean…just watch that A&E special on the Clintons. It was like a flashback for all of us who were covering it at the time. But that wasn’t really a concern back then, that women can’t support Bill Clinton because look what he did. It was like, women disagree and they disagree on these issues. Monica, close it out real quick.
CROWLEY: Yeah, you know, feminism was supposed to be about women having the ability to do what they wanted and think the way they wanted. And look, I voted for Donald Trump. I am not a racist. I voted for Trump because of economic issues, trade, exiting the Iran deal, renegotiating NAFTA and so on and a pro-Israel stance. That’s why I voted for him. Period.
