ABC News can’t seem to keep it together. The left-leaning news station has been full of fake news, and now they’ve dropped even lower by throwing insults over Twitter.
Matthew Dowd, a political analyst with ABC News, posted a tweet toward a female Republican member of Congress, Representative Elise Stefanik (R-NY) that was identified as a sexist attack.
His comment was why Stefanik was a “perfect example” of why electing someone because they’re a woman doesn’t “get you the leaders we need.” Ouch. So, it’s because she’s a woman that she’s a bad leader? Whether this is what he meant to say or not, it’s clear that the tweet could be misconstrued as sexist.
After receiving a significant amount of backlash at the tweet, Dowd has chosen to delete the tweet, hoping that the evidence of his mishap is eliminated. However, there were plenty of people who decided to screenshot the tweet for prosperity – so his mishap lives on.
Dowd’s post was designed to criticize the role that she has taken within the impeachment hearings concerning President Trump.
The problem is not so much with what Dowd said, though that’s a problem, too. It’s how he’s supposed to be an “objective independent” when he clearly has a problem with the Republican but not with a Democrat in the same position. Many people decided to compare and contrast the tweet that he made about Stefanik to the one that he made about AOC.
The tweet that he made about AOC was of glowing approval. He said that he disagrees with many of her positions but that she’s a “needed breath of fresh air.” He also said that there’s no doubt that she loves her country. With Stefanik, he simply trashes her because she’s a “woman” and a “millennial” and doesn’t deem her to be the leader that we need.
Plenty of reporters, bloggers, and even Congressmen took to Twitter to tell Dowd that he should be ashamed of himself. There was also the call that ABC condemns him for his words since it was clear that he didn’t like Stefanik because of her position on the Trump impeachment. Just because she’s a Republican female doesn’t mean that she deserved such harsh words – especially when her views aligned with those of the district that she won in, not because of being a female.
Dowd chose to delete the tweet and address some of the controversies. In not the best of English, which begs the question of whether he even thought about his response before, yet again, jumping the gun, said that people “misunderstand my tweet.” He didn’t apologize for the tweet that he sent. Instead, he went on the defensive to tell people that the US needs more leaders with integrity, not more millennials or more women.
Was that supposed to be a way of clearing up that his comment wasn’t racist? No one has been saying that we need more millennials or more females. Why single Stefanik out for being both? He says, “Vote integrity no matter what.” What’s to say that people didn’t do that when they voted Stefanik for their district? He certainly isn’t sounding like an objective independent with a comment like that.
Finally, in a second tweet, he chose to direct it to Elise Stefanik and apologize for the tweet that was being misunderstood. He said that he didn’t mean to suggest that she was elected solely for being a millennial or a woman. He also acknowledged that he deleted the tweet.
Stefanik, like the professional that she is, accepted the apology. She will forgive but she will not forget. She followed the acceptance up with saying that @ABCPolitics should be ashamed of his comment. She identifies that behavior like this is why young women don’t run for office.
This isn’t the first time that Dowd has let a sexist comment derail his popularity. He made similar accusations on Twitter in October toward Megyn Kelly, the former anchor for Fox News. He had to delete that tweet after the backlash, too.
It’s clear that Matthew Dowd is incapable of being objective. He also seems to struggle with women in power, especially if they’re Republican. While ABC News is left-leaning, they try to convince the world that they’re not. If they’re going to continue to employ Dowd and let him send out tweets to insult Republican women, they may want to try a little harder to convince people that they’re not tainting the media in the favor of the blue.
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