Fox Business Network anchor Maria Bartiromo stated that comparisons of sexual misconduct allegations between President Trump and Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn, are as valid as comparing apples to oranges, and during the ensuing backlash from her peers appears to have blocked some of them on Twitter.
“You’re comparing something that is apples to oranges, it’s not the same at all,” Bartiromo said in a discussion with former Obama administration official Chris Lu on “Mornings with Maria” on Friday.
She also said that “there are no allegations against the president,” to which Lu disagreed.
The conversation came after a report which contained allegations of Franken groping and forcefully kissing radio host Leeann Tweeden without her consent in 2006. A picture also showed Franken placing his hands over Tweeden’s breasts while she was sleeping. Soon after Franken apologized and called for an ethics probe into the incident, which occurred while he worked as a comedian before he became a senator.
Trump raised the ire of many politicos and journalists this week after he weighed in on the controversy, tweeting Thursday evening that the “Al Frankenstien picture is really bad,” while he has remained largely silent on the sexual misconduct scandal swirling around Alabama Republican U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore.
Trump, amid the fallout from the 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape during the campaign in which he said bragged about doing sexually explicit things to woman, faced a fresh wave of the women accusing him of sexual assault. In October of this year, during a press conference at the White House, Trump rebuffed these allegations, calling them “fake news.”
Bartiromo’s rejection of the Trump-Franken comparison echos that of White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, when asked about it Friday. “Sen. Franken has admitted wrongdoing and the president hasn’t,” she said.
Still, Bartiromo faced a salvo of criticism from her peers for the comment, who later tweeted that Bartiromo had blocked them. Of those blocked were CNN’s Brian Stelter and Huffington Post’s Yashar Ali.
See their tweets below:
I’ve always had a cordial relationship with @MariaBartiromo. I can only assume that this tweeted observation is why she suddenly blocked me… ??♂️ pic.twitter.com/p6PEGTiBGk
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) November 18, 2017
3. Wow @brianstelter she blocked me too after my two tweets above. pic.twitter.com/7gmtpLMcBj
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) November 18, 2017
