During Monday morning’s MSNBC Live, host Craig Melvin sat down with MSNBC political analyst and SiriusXM progressive programming director Zerlina Maxwell to discuss Michelle Obama’s new book Becoming and Mrs. Obama's interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts.
After playing a clip of Roberts asking Obama about “why so many women” chose to “reject an exceptionally qualified female candidate and instead choose a misogynist as their President,” Melvin asked Maxwell to weigh in and she echoed Mrs. Obama’s talking points, lamenting “the fact that we elected someone who had no qualifications to be President, who was running against a woman with a laundry list of qualifications to be President and instead America...chose to give the Electoral College to the person with no experience, who happened to be a man, just like all the other Presidents.”
According to Maxwell: “What Michelle Obama is highlighting is the fact that that in and of itself is misogynistic and sexist.”
It should go without saying that “the woman with a laundry list of qualifications to be President” mentioned by Maxwell is Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party’s 2016 presidential standard bearer. The statements of Maxwell and Michelle Obama should not come as that much of a surprise considering the fact that during and after the 2016 election, liberal women did their best to patronize the millions of women who dared not to support Clinton.
The condescending treatment towards women who did not support Hillary Clinton continued well beyond Election Day 2016. More than a year after losing the 2016 Presidential Election to “someone who had no qualifications to be President,” Mrs. Clinton echoed Gloria Steinem and suggested that white women, a demographic group that voted against her in 2016, felt “ongoing pressure to vote the way that your husband, your boss, your son, whoever, believes you should.” Clinton’s logic implies that left to their own devices, women would never consider voting for a Republican, especially a “misogynist” and a “deplorable” like President Trump.
So, Zerlina Maxwell and probably countless other liberal women think the Electoral College is “misogynistic and sexist.” According to Merriam-Webster, one of the definitions for “sexism” is “behavior, conditions, or attitudes that foster stereotypes of social roles based on sex.” Considering the fact that liberal politicians and talking heads have subscribed to the stereotype that all women are supposed to be hard-core feminists who only care about abortion, and therefore vote Democratic, it looks like the people crying “sexism” around the clock might be a little bit sexist themselves.
A transcript of the relevant portion of Monday’s edition of MSNBC Live With Craig Melvin is below. Click “expand” to read more.
MSNBC Live With Craig Melvin
11/12/18
11:52 a.m. Eastern
CRAIG MELVIN: In an excerpt from her new book Becoming set to be released tomorrow, Former First Lady Michelle Obama describing exactly how she felt on January 20th, 2017. That’s the day she left the White House and Donald Trump became President.
MICHELLE OBAMA: The vibrant diversity of the two previous inaugurations was gone. Someone from Barack’s administration might have said that the optics there were bad, that what the public saw didn’t reflect the President’s reality or ideals. But in this case, maybe it did. Realizing it, I made my own optic adjustment. I stopped even trying to smile.
MELVIN: And didn’t just like stop trying to smile. At one point looked like she was going to do something else instead. Zerlina Maxwell is back with me, Director of Progressive Programming for Sirius XM. She’s also an MSNBC Political Analyst. What do you make of that?
ZERLINA MAXWELL: Well, I think it’s actually a good lesson for American women because often when we’re walking around in our regular lives or we’re in the workplace hallway, people tell us to smile if we’re not, it’s a thing that women deal with. So women watching know exactly what I’m talking about, and sometimes you don't feel like smiling. And I think, For Michelle Obama to say, look, I was in a moment where there was a lot going on in the country. You know, his inauguration speech actually wasn’t really something that would make you smile because it was, he was talking about American carnage, so it wasn’t exactly, you know, the feel good happy speech anyway. But I think the fact that she didn’t, she chose not to smile is actually reflecting the seriousness of the particular moment that she was in and I think that’s important for the country to see.
MELVIN: I want to play something else she said, this is some criticism of President Trump. Here’s what she said.
ROBIN ROBERTS: What you haven’t said before, you said, I will always about wonder about what led so many women in particular to reject an exceptionally qualified female candidate and instead choose a misogynist as their President. Those are powerful words.
MICHELLE OBAMA: I implored people to focus and to think about what it takes to be Commander-in-Chief. It’s amazing to me that we still have to tell people about the importance of voting.
MELVIN: And there’s more. I mean, that interview by the way is from ABC last night. She really takes on the President in this new book. In a way that I think a lot of folks haven’t seen or heard from her since she left office, why do you think that is, do you think she’s just fed up now?
MAXWELL: Well, I think she talks about this in one of the excerpts I read. She said during her time in the White House, you’re so busy, and you’re doing, you only have a finite amount of time, so she was busy every second trying to get work done, you know, as First Lady and as part of the administration, and so she now has had a moment to reflect on her experiences, and as the first black woman to be First Lady of the country, she has a lot to pull from, because she has a solely unique experience. And I think that she is talking about the 2016 campaign. And I agree with her, the fact that we elected someone who had no qualifications to be President, who was running against a woman with a laundry list of qualifications to be President, and instead America or the Electoral College chose to give the Electoral College to the person with no experience, who happened to be a man, just like all of the other Presidents. And so what Michelle Obama is highlighting is the fact that that in and of itself is misogynistic and sexist, and perhaps as a country we should take a moment to reflect on that.
MELVIN: That seems like a good spot to leave it on this Monday. Zerlina Maxwell, always enjoy having you, thank you. And we will be right back.
