With the bar for “sexism” getting increasingly low, the president is now being berated by Democrats for referring to Sen. Elizabeth Warren by her first name.
Warren recently helped lead the charge against the White House’s trade agenda, leading Obama to remark, “The truth of the matter is that Elizabeth is, you know, a politician like everybody else.”
National Organization for Women (NOW) president Terry O’Neill told The Hill the comment was “disrespectful” and sexist, because the “clear subtext is that the little lady just doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”
“Yes, I think it is sexist,” O’Neill said. “I think the president was trying to build up his own trustworthiness on this issue by convincing us that Senator Warren’s concerns are not to be taken seriously. But he did it in a sexist way.”
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) made similar comments. “I think the president was disrespectful to her by the way he did that,” Brown told reporters. “I think that the president has made this more personal than he needed to.”
“I think referring to her as first name, when he might not have done that for a male senator, perhaps? I’ve said enough.”
But as various outlets were quick to point out, many male politicians also get the first-name treatment from Obama–including Brown himself.
Politico’s Ben White asked Brown’s office if, in light of this fact, they would like to retract the accusation of sexism. A spokesman declined that opportunity.
