Politics

Journalists Back Up Impeachment Witness’s Barron Trump Comment

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Some journalists seemed to appreciate a Democratic impeachment witness’s reference to President Donald Trump’s 13-year-old son during Wednesday’s hearing.

Four legal scholars spoke during the House Judiciary Committee’s impeachment hearing on Wednesday. Professor Pamela Karlan, one of the scholars to appear before the committee, referenced 13-year-old Barron Trump during her testimony.

While the remark drew outrage from Trump supporters, some members of the media were more receptive to it. PBS journalist Yamiche Alcindor seemed to praise the jab, tweeting that Karlan’s comment was “fire.”

“Fire words from Professor Pamela S. Karlan. … Wow,” Alcindor tweeted along with Karlan’s reference to Trump’s child.

Fire words from Professor Pamela S. Karlan.

“While the president can name his son Barron (Trump), he can’t make him a Barron (a rank of nobility or title of honour in England, often hereditary).”

Wow.

— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) December 4, 2019

Daily Beast politics editor Sam Stein also appeared to justify Karlan’s reference to the 13-year-old. “Would this be deemed an attack on Hunter Biden if someone said this about his dad? ‘You can call your kid Hunter but that doesn’t mean that you suddenly know how to hunt,'” Stein wondered.

Stein didn’t note the difference between the two situations, namely that Karlan’s comment was about a 13-year-old, whereas Hunter Biden is 49.

“Mic drop moment-> Pamela Karlan, explaining that the Constitution forbids nobility titles: ‘So while the president can name his son Barron, he cannot make him a Baron,'” NBC News reporter Adam Edelman wrote. Edelman’s take received backlash on Twitter, with many replying that this was not, in fact, a “mic drop moment.”

Media Matters editor-at-large Parker Molloy was confused about how the comment was an attack on Trump’s child. She tweeted asking people to explain, adding that she was “genuinely trying to understand” why it was bad.

Can someone please explain to me how Barron Trump was “attacked?”

(Please don’t reply to this by saying “He wasn’t” because I know that. I’m genuinely trying to understand what people think the “attack” was. Was it literally just the mention of his name?)

— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) December 5, 2019

Meanwhile, CNN’s Chris Cuomo noted that “going after kids is rightly a nono in politics,” but appeared to accept Karlan’s comment because Trump “is too often at his absolute worst.”

“Two obvious points: Going after kids is rightly a nono in politics; and this first point would have more weight here, if not for the obvious: the husband of Melania who rightly calls for us to #BeBest, is too often at his absolute worst, disrespecting everyone and anyone,” Cuomo tweeted after First Lady Melania Trump wrote that Karlan should be “ashamed” for going after a child.