USA Today columnist and Fox News Analyst Kirsten Powers argued that while Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has “been treated pretty well this time around” “it makes sense that they would try to say that she’s being treated with sexist treatment” to energize their female base on Monday’s “O’Reilly Factor” on the Fox News Channel.
After seeing a clip of Georgetown Professor Michael Eric Dyson saying “As a woman, and as a female leading candidate, the sexism to which she has been subject[ed] is pretty astonishing for our lack of remark upon it.” Powers said that Hillary “did experience a lot of sexism in 2008.” But “I haven’t seen a lot, that was as overt as what we saw in ’08. … I’m sure that there are some incidents. There usually are. But there hasn’t been some sort of pattern of sexism against her that has — that I’ve noticed.”
When asked who is being sexist towards Clinton, Powers responded, “I don’t know.”
She continued, “[S]ome people have complained that when Donald Trump went after her about her husband’s behavior, that somehow that was sexist because it was expecting her to be responsible for her husband’s behavior. But I don’t really see that as sexism. I think that some of the stuff that we saw in ’08, particularly from Obama supporters, was very overtly sexist, it was very gender specific. And I just haven’t seen a pattern of that this time. I’m not saying that it never happens, but it doesn’t seem to be like a pattern.”
Powers added, “I think that she’s been sort of — she’s been treated pretty well this time around. If — the types of things, for example, the Clinton campaign now saying they don’t like [Democratic candidate Sen.] Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) tone, for example. It’s hard to imagine if that was said about her, that that would be acceptable. You know, I think that they are trying to look for ways to, I guess, you know, energize their base, right? The female base. And so it makes sense that they would try to say that she’s being treated with sexist treatment, but they should be able to have a laundry list, I think…to give an example.”
Powers concluded, “[I]t is something that will energize some women, I think, if they feel that she’s being treated unfairly because she’s a woman.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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