It has barely been 72 hours since presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden announced Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate, and the Democratic Party’s allies in politics and media are already inventing new ways to brand criticism of the California senator as “sexist.”
Vanity Fair contributor and Hillary Clinton 2016 campaign flack Jennifer Palmieri, for example, alleged this week during a recent appearance on MSNBC that it is sexist to refer to Harris as a “phony."
But the senator clearly is a phony. At least, what word would you use to describe a politician who staked out at least four separate positions on "Medicare for all" during the 2020 Democratic primary?
“‘Phony’ is a very gendered term that we use to present women in power in an unfavorable light, right? There's something fake about them, there's something they're hiding, there's something suspicious about them. It's a very old trope,” said Palmieri, referring to the Trump campaign’s recent criticisms of Harris.
She added, “You saw Trump go down the ‘nasty,’ ‘nasty woman’ sort of rabbit hole, as he did with Hillary. … There will be sexist tropes against [Harris], too. But there's a lot of people that have been planning both in and outside of the Biden campaign to have her back and fight back this time.”
What patent nonsense.
First, the origin of the word “phony” has nothing to do with gender. The word is derived from a type of metal.
“Phony (which dates from the early 1900s) is believed to be an alteration of the British fawney, the word for a gilded brass ring used in a confidence game called the ‘fawney rig,’” Merriam-Webster explains.
Second, perhaps Palmieri should follow MSNBC’s news coverage more often. She would know then that the word “phony” is used quite often to describe a certain male politician.
“[Bernie Sanders] calls Trump a ‘total phony,’ says he can defeat him in a general election,” MSNBC reported in 2016.
The left-wing network declared later in another headline, “Romney Blasts Trump as a 'Phony, a Fraud.’”
“Anthony Weiner: Donald Trump is a 'phony,’” reads yet another MSNBC headline.
Lastly, the list of people that President Trump has associated with the word “phony” features a lot of men, including Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California, Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Ted Cruz of Texas, and Marco Rubio of Florida, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, and comedian Jon Stewart. It has nothing to do with gender. There is no darker, sexist subtext. Trump just loves the word “phony" — and it also happens that it accurately describes Harris.
Palmieri, it seems, is simply inventing ways to be offended on Harris’s behalf. Get ready for the longest final months of a presidential election of your life.
