In the face of a near continuous stream of departures from the Trump administration, there are a small number of people who have somehow managed to stay on, ever since the campaign season. In addition to the president’s family members, that group includes Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, who has long proven her devotion to the president’s platform.
She put her devotion to that platform on display yet again this week when she was pressed by a TMZ reporter about whether or not the media has been unfair to Melania Trump, compared to our most recent first lady, Michelle Obama. Asking any member of the Trump administration a question about the media is like throwing chum in the water to sharks, and unsurprisingly, Conway took the bait.
She was asked specifically about the higher number of magazine covers that Michelle Obama has found herself on over Melania Trump, and to that, she answered:
‘Melania Trump is such a superior and excellent first lady. This country is so lucky to have her as its first lady. Her work with youth… you saw her in the East Wing recently talking about the opioid crisis, empowering young kids in their curriculum in the public schools. She’s just doing a wonderful job. Everybody’s so excited that she and her team are in charge of the state dinner with the Macrons coming up this week… she’s a philanthropist, she’s a wonderful role model for women and girls and really anyone everywhere and I don’t think she needs to be on the cover of a magazine for everybody to see how wonderful her work is.’
Check out video of her commentary below.
“Talking about the opioid crisis” is not the world changing move that Conway seems to be under the impression it is. Anyone can “talk about the opioid crisis,” as her own husband the president did recently, calling for the death penalty for certain drug dealers.
In so doing, the president took after Filipino leader Rodrigo Duterte, who has carried out a human rights violating campaign against drugs in his own country recently. Trump has suckered up to Duterte on numerous occasions, even inviting him to the White House last year — so in other words, it’s not only not world changing, it’s not even always a good thing when someone “talks about the opioid crisis.”
In addition, Conway’s excited usage of the word “superior” to refer to Melania Trump when comparing her to Michelle Obama remains poised to raise some eyebrows. TMZ itself noted:
‘Yep, that’s the word she used.’
White supremacists often, of course, refer to their ideal human as “superior” to other types, and the circumstances leading up to Conway’s comments to TMZ make it so that her quip employing that term is questionable at best.
Besides the fact that Melania Trump is obviously a European, while Michelle Obama is an African American, the Trump administration has in the past repeatedly given legitimacy to white supremacist causes. Such has been accomplished through such means as the president initially refusing to offer specific condemnation of such individuals after a weekend of violence that they sparked last year.
In the face of all of this, remembering some of the aims that Michelle Obama did work for, like ending childhood obesity, is fitting. She was not as irrelevant as Conway would suggest.
Featured Image via Screenshot from the Video
