Tuesday on MSNBC’s special coverage the State of the Union speech, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) said President Donald Trump did not understand Democratic female members of Congress were clapping and chanting for their own success in being elected.
MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace said, “I want to read this line because I don’t think Donald Trump intended for it to be received in this way. I think the moment was lost on him. Hopefully someone will explain it to him when he gets home tonight. He said, ‘Nobody has benefited more from our thriving economy than women, who fill 58% of the new jobs created in the last year. All Americans can be proud that there are more women in the workforce than ever before.’ You all stood up and applauded. Yeah, there is a lot of women largely in reaction to—I think a lot of passions that were stirred when a man who could say what he said on the Access Hollywood tape ascended to the most powerful office in the land. Is that how it felt? Did you get the sense that it was lost on him?”
Tlaib answered, “Absolutely. A couple of my colleagues turned around and said ‘I don’t think he gets it.’ It really was this moment—we were all kind of looking at each other. Even though we obviously look differently as members of Congress, we hope that he honors this diversity. Not just say that he’s, you know, acknowledging this new incredible wave of new women in Congress but actually put us at the table when you talk about the issue of our bodies, when you talk about pay equity. When you talk about women, let’s actually have us at the table.”
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