During MSNBC’s live election coverage of the Indiana primary on Tuesday, Chris Matthews made a few comments about Donald Trump’s wife, Melania Trump, into a microphone he reportedly didn’t know was still live.
“Did you see her walk?” he asked. “Runway walk. My God is that good. I could watch that runway show.”
His comments went largely unnoticed at the time, until it began to attract attention on Twitter on Wednesday. In response, a pearl-clutching spokesperson for Melania Trump responded:
“[Melania Trump is] an accomplished businesswoman and entrepreneur in her own right,” a spokesperson told CNN via email. “[It is] unfortunate to see the continuous inaccuracies and misrepresentations made by the media of Mrs. Trump as anything less than the independently successful woman that she is.”
I’m not following the logic behind this response. How is noting that Melania Trump walks like a supermodel, which is what her occupation has been for most of her adult life, an inaccuracy or a misrepresentation? How does it possibly detract from her successes? Besides, Donald Trump has been saying things like this about his wife and other good-looking women for decades now, including this campaign cycle, and the media has covered for him.
Yet the media characterization of Matthews’s comments was wildly overblown. Apparently it’s okay for Donald Trump to say these things, but not for Matthews.
“Matthews’ comment about Trump is the latest in a string of remarks the MSNBC host has made about women’s appearances over the years,” CNN Money reported.
Here’s a tweet on the topic from The Hill.
Chris Matthews caught on hot mic making lewd comments about Melania Trump https://t.co/az9Gojq3Hf pic.twitter.com/GU7A1Y6NNy
— The Hill (@thehill) May 5, 2016
“Lewd comments,” ha! Maybe The Hill doesn’t know what that means.
Complementing a woman’s gait isn’t sexually explicit, nor is it crude. Matthews was just saying what many others have already noted — that Melania Trump looks good when she walks. Hell, she was literally paid to do that for years, because she is GOOD AT IT. Just watch the video footage in which Matthews makes his hot mic remarks.
@hardball_chris Matthews creeping on @MELANIATRUMP saying he could watch her walk all day. #dirtyoldman #openmic pic.twitter.com/wQ29lWuVbV
— david lawson (@lumpy68) May 4, 2016
He’s not wrong. Melania Trump slays, and it’s not evil or sexist to point that out.
