After Democratic Congressman Cedric Richmond made a bizarre, sexually charged joke about White House counselor Kellyanne Conway looking “familiar” on the Oval Office couch, one powerful voice in the GOP clapped back with a pitch-perfect response.
Newly installed RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel took to Twitter Thursday morning to condemn Richmond in a series of unambiguous posts taking him to task for the remarks.
“You may think this is funny, but it’s not,” she tweeted at him. “It’s disgusting & offensive.”
McDaniel continued, “A snarky joke for you is just a reminder of the demeaning comments women hear every single day. And trust me, it happens to all women.”
Not satisfied with his attempts to explain away the joke, McDaniel responded, “Don’t ‘clarify’… apologize.”
In one final blow to the Democrat, McDaniel wrote, “I’d suggest using Women’s History Month to lift us up instead of knocking us down.”
High-profile conservative women using their platforms to speak out against outright sexism, especially when its purveyors promote themselves as feminist torchbearers, can only benefit the GOP. With liberals working overtime to accentuate their portrait of Republicans as anti-woman, every example of empowered female conservatives standing up for women chips away at those efforts and makes the party more appealing to voters.
McDaniel’s statement is a great case study in how conservatives can demonstrate their commitment to women without engaging in identity politics or subscribing to the warped standards of political correctness.
Already, McDaniel is proving to be an effective voice of conservative values at the helm of the RNC.
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
