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UPDATE BELOW: Nikki Haley is past her prime according to Don Lemon this morning. Therefore, she shouldn’t be running for President.
It took just half a second for the media to start sniping at her.
Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley argued Wednesday the nation was ready to move past the “division and distractions” that she said marked today’s politics and called for a new generation of leadership as she kicked off her 2024 presidential campaign in Charleston.
Of those divisions and distractions she speaks of, it is the media obsession with political correctness and race that is one such item she’s referring to. Politico couldn’t help themselves and went with this piece:
The only thing more fraught than her relationship with Trump is the one she has with race.
In the announcement video, she opens with an aerial shot of Bamberg, S.C., her birthplace, speaking about a time when railroad tracks divided the town by race and she seemingly didn’t fit with either side. She repurposes her well-trod line: “I was the proud daughter of Indian immigrants, not Black, not white. I was different.”
And then she quickly pivots to talk about how her parents encouraged her and her siblings to focus not on differences, but on the similarities that bind Americans together. It’s that duality — briefly nodding at racial realities without offering tangible solutions — that has benefitted Haley throughout her career.
No doubt Haley, born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa, is a trailblazer.
~Snip
Still, there are other parts of her biography and political record that are a bit more difficult to reconcile. In 2001, for example, she reportedly listed her race as “white” on her voter registration card, three years before she entered into elective politics. (Haley has never publicly addressed her reasons for doing so.)
Oh there’s much more at the link. And, by the way, evidently no one at Politico or others in the media are considering that PERHAPS voter registration cards didn’t HAVE a box to check that would signify she’s of Indian race!
The bizarre Politico hit-piece on Nikki Haley and her race gets some helpful fact-check context from Twitter users. pic.twitter.com/MZx0nkf4Ag
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) February 15, 2023
Furthermore, Republicans are only supposed to use their REAL names when running for office!
https://twitter.com/JamieOGrady/status/1625496305048092675
While there are a lot of people who are skeptical or downright not a fan of Nikki throwing her hat into the ring, Don Lemon REALLY jumped the shark. I mean he hurdled it.
Don Lemon: "Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime. Sorry, when a woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s, and 30s, and maybe 40s…"
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) February 16, 2023
Poppy Harlow: "Are you talking about prime for like child bearing?"
"Don’t shoot the messenger! I’m just saying what the facts are! Google it!" pic.twitter.com/n1HmtkWTpl
Yes, he really said Nikki is past her prime.
“This whole talk about age makes me uncomfortable. I think it’s the wrong road to go down. She says people, you know, politicians or something are not in their prime,” Lemon said on CNN’s morning program Thursday. “Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime, sorry. A woman is considered to be in their prime in 20s and 30s and maybe 40s.”
So, it’s totally fine to prop up 80 year old addled angry Joe Biden as President, and it’s completely fine to cover for John Fetterman, but when it’s a woman who is saying out loud what we’ve been saying for years now, Don Lemon puts his mysogyny on full display.
In other words, unless a women in the United States is under 50 years old and checks all the acceptable boxes according to Don, she can’t run because she’s past her “prime.” Wow.
And, to back up his claim he told his female cohosts to “just GOOGLE it!” As if that makes his sexist commentary acceptable.
Well, let’s take a little look shall we? Hillary Clinton is 75. According to Don, she’s DEFINITELY past her prime! New York Governor Kathy Hochul is 64. She’s a smidge past her prime. How about Elizabeth Warren? Oh, she’s 73! Whoops.
Don Lemon: “Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime. Sorry, When a woman is in their prime in 20s and 30s and maybe 40s…”
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) February 16, 2023
Kamala Harris is 58.
BWAHAHAHA! Oh wait, even the Democrats don’t like Kamala, so she doesn’t count.
What’s even funnier is that Don Lemon, who is already under scrutiny for his on and off-air screaming matches with co hosts, is three years older than Nikki Haley. Is HE past his prime? The disaster that is the CNN ratings say he is!
Yet here he is lecturing Nikki on making sure she, despite being past her prime, doesn’t turn off the voting seniors. You see, Nikki’s age could be a wedge issue. Discussing Joe Biden’s age is forbidden as it isn’t conducive to the narrative according to Don Lemon’s logic.
Keep in mind, Nikki Haley is concerned about the COGNITIVE abilities of folks like Joe Biden. Don Lemon doesn’t see it that way and hurdled all the sharks by conflating her concern as sexual, not cognitive. And, he gets it all wrong and then some.
As Janice Dean points out, Don Lemon’s mysogynistic commentary is a total gift to Nikki’s campaign. If she’s smart, her people will have an ad up and running by next week at the latest slamming Don and CNN for his commentary. If anyone is past their prime, it’s Don Lemon.
UPDATE: Don Lemon issues a very insincere apology in hopes that this will make it all better.
The reference I made to a woman’s “prime” this morning was inartful and irrelevant, as colleagues and loved ones have pointed out, and I regret it. A woman’s age doesn't define her either personally or professionally. I have countless women in my life who prove that every day.
— Don Lemon (@donlemon) February 16, 2023
Feature Photo Credit: Photoshop by Brand X Studio; used by permission.
Carol Marks says: I don’t care for Nikki but what Don said was totally inappropriate. I am dumbfounded that in this day and age he would say something like that. Yes, even him.
kEVIN says: I’m guessing you said the same thing when we heard, “Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.” as spoken loudly and proudly by TFG (the F*%king Genius)?
Here’s the difference between Lemon and TFG (the F#$king Genius) … one understands when they made a mistake and takes ownership and apologizes. The other, just continues to “grab ’em by the pussy” and his followers LOVE IT!
GWB says: You’re just going to keep beating that lie, aren’t you?
Can you at least try to come up with some new arguments? Something relevant?
Scott says: Of course you could read / listen to the entire quote which is VASTLY different than the little snippet you keep whining abut, but then again, that wouldn’t push our agenda like the distortion you use…
Tell the truth Kevin, you’re just angry that he didn’t say “grab em by the crank”… a little jelly are ya??
Cameron says: The funny thing is that when Trump said that (Notice we can say his name without going for edgy acronyms?), he was a Democrat darling and they giggled about it. But the instant he was a candidate, “Well I NEVER!” was their reaction.
Cameron says: Hm. He’s liberal, gay and hates women with a burning passion. I think we figured out Kevin’s identity.
A reader says: FYI there has ALWAYS been a place to mark what Nikki Haley’s race is: Asian. India is part of Asia, specifically SE Asia. Now, many Americans think of East Asians like Chinese or Japanese when they think of Asians, and as I understand it even some Indians might ascribe to that line of thinking, but they are technically Asian. If they don’t want to identify as Asian they can always check “other.” In fact, according to the US Census Bureau an Asian includes “a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.”
But she is definitely not white. Her identifying as white is particularly loaded given India’s history with colonialism and colorism as well as the caste system, which I won’t get into. Also many Northern Indians are lighter skinned like she is and some may have somewhat benefited from all those “isms” in some ways during British rule.
She checked “white” likely to hide her true heritage. But I highly doubt once some people really get wind of her in the general election and more research and articles are written, most Republicans, especially far right Christians, are going to balk at a woman who literally had a Sikh wedding ceremony, whatever the reasoning!
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