First Lady Melania Trump criticized a law professor who was called as an impeachment witness by Democrats for a quip about her husband President Donald Trump and son Barron Trump.
A minor child deserves privacy and should be kept out of politics. Pamela Karlan, you should be ashamed of your very angry and obviously biased public pandering, and using a child to do it.
— Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) December 4, 2019
“A minor child deserves privacy and should be kept out of politics. Pamela Karlan, you should be ashamed of your very angry and obviously biased public pandering, and using a child to do it,” FLOTUS shot back on Twitter.
Stanford Law professor Pamela Karlan appeared at the impeachment hearing on Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee, and agreed with other Democratic-called experts that president Trump committed impeachable offenses. George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, a witness requested by the GOP, took the opposite approach, and said the case was weak.
Arguments aside, Karlan is going viral for a quip that referenced the president’s and first lady’s 13-year-old son:
Kings could do no wrong because the king’s word was law. Contrary to what President Trump has said, Article Two does not give him the power to do anything he wants. I will give you one example that shows the difference between him and a king, which is, the Constitution says there can be no titles of nobility. While the president can name his son Barron, he can’t make him a baron.
The public treatment of presidents’ children has long been a sore spot in American politics. The first lady joins political supporters and conservative pundits in saying Karlan went over the line in bringing up Barron Trump’s name. This tweet from White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham is pretty representative:
Classless move by a Democratic “witness”. Prof Karlan uses a teenage boy who has nothing to do with this joke of a hearing (and deserves privacy) as a punchline. And what’s worse, it’s met by laughter in the hearing room. What is being done to this country is no laughing matter.
— Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) December 4, 2019
Others from team Trump and the GOP lambasted Karlan for the statement.
“Every Democrat in Congress should immediately repudiate Pamela Karlan and call on her to personally apologize to President @realDonaldTrump and the First Lady for mocking their son on national TV.” – @kayleighmcenany
Our @TeamTrump statement ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/dDOVltcnfe
— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) December 4, 2019
WATCH: @mattgaetz questions Pamela Karlan’s donations to Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton and condemns her mocking President Trump’s 13-year-old son Barron.
“It doesn’t lend credibility to your argument. It makes you look mean.” pic.twitter.com/AJZC0917xJ
— Trump War Room (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TrumpWarRoom) December 4, 2019
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida, 1st District) confronted Karlan about this during the hearing.
“It makes you look mean!” he said. “It makes you look like you’re attacking someone’s family — the minor child of the President of the United States.”
Karlan later apologized.
[Screengrab via PBS]
