In theory, this was an apolitical event focused on women's advancement in the workforce. But when Mika Brzezinski put together a panel of Gloria Steinem, Billie Jean King, and Hillary Clinton at the Forbes 30/50 event as part of International Women's Day in Abu Dhabi, she surely would have known that liberal politics would eventually bust out.
And sure enough . . .
After Hillary Clinton extolled Steinem for originating "Take Your Daughter to Work Day," Steinem returned the praise in spades:
"I just want to point out to you, at this moment in time, how different the history of my country and the world would have been had we had Hillary Clinton instead—instead of Trump!"
As the audience burst into wild cheering, Hillary, realizing things had spun a bit out of bounds, replied, "well, that's a conversation [pause] stopper."
But as you'll see in the screencap, Hillary's beaming smile belied her admonition: she was obviously glorying in the moment.
Mika played along, saying: "for another day." But you know that she loved Steinem's political plug for Hillary.
Earlier in the discussion, Billie Jean King lavished praise on Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who had made his rep as a very woke exec, for his pledge to boldly and immediately ensure equal pay for women at his company and the 14 companies it was acquiring.
But Benioff's super-woke shtick hit the skids after Saleforce's stock price plunged 40% from its Covid-pandemic peak.
Suddenly, Benioff changed his tune. In a recent analyst call, Benioff said: “profitability is truly our number one strategy”, and described profits as the company’s “north star."
Even worse from the liberal perspective, Benioff recently suggested that executives should emulate that arch-anti-woke villain, Elon Musk!
"Every CEO in Silicon Valley has looked at what Elon Musk has done and has asked themselves, 'Do they need to unleash their own Elon within them?'" Benioff said during an interview with Insider on Thursday. "You have to look at him and say, 'Wow, it's a very unorthodox management style,' but, as I've said, you can't underestimate what he's done."
Benioff is gonna have some 'splainin to do to Billie Jean!
On Morning Joe, at a supposedly apolitical Women's Day Event moderated by Mika Brzezinski, Gloria Steinem asking people to reflect on how different things would have been if Hillary were president instead of Trump was sponsored by Pfizer, maker of Nexium, and Life Alert.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
3/8/23
6:40 am ETHILLARY CLINTON: Gloria, you helped establish in the United States, the "Take Your Daughter To Work Day," which was such a great program. And, you know, you started that so girls could have a chance to get into a workplace and figure out what their career opportunities might be.
Now we know that decades later, women are the majority of the college-educated in the United States. Yet, are still underrepresented at the highest levels of leadership in most sectors. And of course, that goes far beyond the United States. That's a global fact.
So why aren't we seeing more women in highest positions of leadership since women have gotten themselves educated, they've gotten out into the workforce, they've really put themselves in the marketplace. And yet, they're stalled. And not getting where they -- where we think they deserve to be.
GLORIA STEINEM: There are a lot of reasons, as we know. And one is the unfairly, unequal responsibility for raising children. And another is just the mystique of masculinity [audience applauds.]
But I just, I just want to point out to you, at this moment in time, how different the history of my country and the world would have been had we had Hillary Clinton [audience cheers wildly] instead -- instead of Trump!
HILLARY: Well, that's a conversation . . . stopper.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: For another day.
