MSNBC host Joe Scarborough has seen your frowns–and your middle fingers–and he’s ready for them to stop. Not that he’s saying he’s sorry. Far from it. “You couldn’t be more wrong,” he writes in his column at The Washington Post.
Scarborough says he woke up Wednesday to discover that a comment made while watching Hillary Clinton‘s Super Tuesday victory speech–“Smile. You just had a big night”–had been seen as sexist by many, including the comedian Samantha Bee, who encouraged her followers to #SmileForJoe:
Ladies, it's very important that you #SmileForJoe.https://t.co/hy6CBbLwdY pic.twitter.com/Z8asKguNdv
Advertisement— Full Frontal (@FullFrontalSamB) March 16, 2016
Many, many followed suit.
@katespencer @JoeNBC pic.twitter.com/skIqyVYL6w
— The Real MJ (@MeganJ_28) March 16, 2016
“My seven-word tweet was the greatest offense committed against womankind since misogynists like Henry VIII and Bobby Riggs roamed the earth,” said Scarborough, who defended his comment:
No man should say “smile” to a woman walking down the street. I understand that and would never say such a thing. But Clinton is not a pedestrian on her way to work. She is the most experienced politician on the national stage today who wants to be the next president of the United States. Critiquing anyone’s political skills who seeks that office is always fair game.