Poor Kamala Harris. The media coddled the Democratic vice presidential nominee after her debate with Vice President Mike Pence a few weeks ago. Pence interrupted her twice as many times as she interrupted him, MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell shared with concern in her voice in her post-debate coverage. Joy Reid was also very upset.
"Every woman who's ever been repeatedly interrupted in a meeting, who's ever not been allowed to finish a sentence, who's had a man refuse to follow the rules and just blow past whatever the norms and whatever the guardrails are supposed to be, and then you attempt to do the same and are mowed down," Reid said in response to Pence's apparently inappropriate debate decorum.
And yet, when male Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee rudely talked over Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett all this week, most of the media didn't bother to tally how many times she was interrupted. The Republican National Committee created a video highlighting just a sample of the times that Democrats like Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Chris Coons (D-DE), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) cut into her answers or talk down to her and tell her she's not understanding their questions.
"Your selective sexism is showing," RNC spokeswoman Liz Harrington told the press on Friday.
"Every woman who's ever been repeatedly interrupted in a meeting..not been allowed to finish..Who's had a man refuse to follow the rules..you attempt to do the same & are mowed down"
— Elizabeth Harrington (@LizRNC) October 16, 2020
No, Judge Barrett was unflappable. But your selective sexism is showingpic.twitter.com/Ffvt5Jeyd6
In his first Q&A, Sen. Whitehouse took his mansplaining one step further by delivering a lecture about "dark money." For about 30 minutes, he spoke without paragraph breaks, and didn't bother to pose the nominee any questions. She uttered zero words during that "exchange."
But the media decided that either the Democratic mansplaining is more acceptable, or that Barrett is simply on her own.