"All of us should learn from the past that there are these biases and attitudes about women seeking power." We need to be ready to defend whomever Joe Biden chooses as VP.
August 9, 2020

Zerlina Maxwell went there in her interview with Sec. HIllary Clinton on AM Joy this morning.

She asked about the Maureen Dowd opinion piece, and the New York Times tweet in which Dowd and The Times claimed it has been 36 years since a man and a woman ran together at the top of the ticket. Dowd's piece didn't even bother to mention Sec. Clinton and her VP choice, Senator Tim Kaine, or Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin, and she and The Times were roundly pilloried for it on social media and in the press. They eventually deleted the tweet and issued a correction, which did little to fix the mistake, frankly. Sec. Clinton, though, as usual, had the best and shadiest response, making reference to Dowd's infamous column on her simply tragically awful experience with a pot brownie, winning the day.

On AM Joy, though, when Maxwell asked her about the tweet and the shade, Sec. Clinton managed to gracefully avoid mentioning Dowd's name, or dignify the column with a specific response, saying it's part of a more systemic problem.

SEC. CLINTON: Well, look, I think it's part of the larger challenge. This is something that I think about for whichever woman Joe puts on the ticket with him. There still is just so many filters that stand between women seeking public office, particularly at the highest level, and the press and the public. We just have to keep ripping them away and making it absolutely clear that women are ready to serve. We have served. We are prepared to serve.

I think that any of us in the press or who have any kind of platform should be ready to really speak out and defend the woman that Vice President Biden picks, because I can tell you the Trump campaign has not been successful in the many absurd attacks that they have made on Joe Biden. They have tried just about everything they could think of, not that they are going to stop, because that's the only way they think they can win. But they're going to go after whoever he puts on the ticket, whichever woman, no matter how accomplished.

I think all of us should learn from the past that there are these biases and attitudes about women seeking power. My gosh, there's never been an ambitious man apparently, at least I don't hear that word applied to a man. So we've got to defend the right of women to seek and hold power. I think we're going to have a lot of practice on that as soon as Joe names his choice.

MAXWELL: I think that's a good point. I am ready to get in formation. I don't know about you. To stand up for whoever Joe Biden picks as his vice president.

I hope we are ALL ready to get in formation, because three months may not seem like a long time, but in Trump time? It's forever. And as Sec. Clinton said, we are going to get a lot of practice fending off the attacks.

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