What year is it? An EMILY’s List spokesman mixed up the years — and candidates — while trying to attack Sen. Mark Kirk Monday night.
During a segment on “All in with Chris Hayes” on MSNBC, EMILY’s List spokeswoman Jess McIntosh claimed Kirk “also called Tammy Duckworth a ‘naive fool’ and spent all her time picking out dresses for the DNC.”
Hayes and McIntosh were attempting to connect Kirk to Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s numerous comments about women. Kirk, who’s defending his Senate seat from Rep. Duckworth, did call the former Iraq War veteran a “naive fool,” which is about as ungendered as one can get.
But Kirk never claimed Duckworth “spent all her time picking out dresses for the DNC.” That was said back in 2012, by Duckworth’s then congressional opponent Joe Walsh. Duckworth ended up beating Walsh and replacing him in the House of Representatives.
Walsh was trying to knock Duckworth for being too close to national Democrats. But his attack came out awkwardly, and he was accused of sexism (naturally) by the Left.
McIntosh, in a statement emailed to the Washington Examiner, apologized for the error and said she confused it with a different gaffe from Kirk.
“Many apologies, I confused ‘trying on dresses’ with ‘bro with no ho,'” McIntosh said, referring to an earlier comment from Kirk in which he was trying to joke with Sen. Lindsey Graham. “Kirk was the latter, Walsh the former. My point stands: Tammy Duckworth is going to beat both of them.”
It’s another flap for EMILY’s List, a group that hasn’t had much election success in the past few years. The group backed 17 losing candidates in 2014, including several incumbents. In 2014, it decided to spend millions propping up Donna Edwards’ primary challenge against respected Democratic incumbent Chris Van Hollen. Despite $2.4 million spent on behalf of Edwards, Van Hollen handily won the primary.
Kirk is facing a tough challenge to hold onto his seat, as Illinois is set to vote heavily for the Democratic nominee in November. That turnout will make it tough for a Republican in a deep-blue state to get re-elected, and the most recent polls show the two rivals in a statistical tie. The poll was conducted by Kirk’s own pollsters and showed Duckworth ahead by 3 points but within the margin of error.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
