Lara Spencer: I Didn’t Sit On Donald Trump’s Lap In Instagram Photo
Lara Spencer is feeling the heat for a new Instagram photo with Donald Trump, but Spencer is fighting back against claims that Lara sat on the lap of The Donald. Articles like the one titled “Lara Spencer gets heat for sitting on Donald Trump’s lap” from Fox News? are getting blowback on Instagram from Lara, and the Good Morning America co-host is setting the record straight that she didn’t sit on Trump’s lap.
https://instagram.com/p/9olP9FLIkF/
The laraspencerabc Instagram account states clearly that Spencer is standing next to Trump, not sitting on his lap like some news organizations have assumed.
“Let’s clear this up – I’m standing next to Donald Trump. Said a quick hello and welcomed him to the GMA studio for first time since he announced his candidacy.”
On Instagram, Lara is receiving flak and nasty comments from those assuming that Spencer is sitting on The Donald’s famous lap. However, the full photo doesn’t show the full truth. It could very well be that Trump is seated (or shorter than Lara) and Spencer walked over to The Donald and gave him a quick hug and a welcoming hello to the GMA studios.
Lap or no lap, ABC’s Lara Spencer hugging Donald Trump is bad for female journalists https://t.co/rvhb49BJ1X pic.twitter.com/wcb11h39K1
— FORTUNE (@FortuneMagazine) November 4, 2015
Whether Spencer sat on Trump’s lap or not, the Instagram photo is bad for Lara’s image and that of female journalists, writes Fortune. Claims that Lara got too close and chummy with the Republican presidential candidate have been circulating ever since Spencer posted the photo to Instagram. The photo is still available on Lara’s Instagram account as of this writing, with the television journalist best known for co-anchoring ABC’s Good Morning America not believing she did anything wrong by giving Trump a quick hug.
The real question is how the internet would’ve responded if Spencer was a male journalist hugging The Donald in that manner, and would he have received as much vitriol as Lara is getting for her Trump non-lap hug. Nevertheless, it’s Trump’s sexists views and comments that The Donald has expressed towards women that have caused the backlash against Lara to come in droves.
Lara, also a correspondent for Nightline and ABC News, is 46-years-old and five feet, six inches tall. Trump is 69-years-old and six feet, two inches tall, so it appears that The Donald was likely sitting down when he received the warm greeting from Spencer. Either way, folks are blasting Lara and calling her behavior unprofessional. They advise Spencer to give Trump a handshake next time and not an awkward hug that could make it appear Lara was sitting on his lap.
It’s not the fact that The Donald is married that seems to trouble folks about the photo on Spencer’s Instagram. It’s Trump’s views on women, which have been called misogynistic and sexist, that are painting Lara as a journalist in a bad light, as if she’s some fangirl who got a photo with The Donald that she couldn’t wait to share on Instagram.
Some are defending Lara in the comments section on Instagram beneath the photo.
“Shut up already! The Donald is happily married, it was no big deal! TRUMP-??-2016”
Others are wondering if Spencer had hugged someone other than Trump if it would’ve been okay.
“And if she were doing this with Hilary Clinton or Bernie Sanders it would be okay wouldn’t it?”
Finally, a few of the comments on Spencer’s Instagram photo with Trump are downright laugh-out-loud funny.
“Lara. All these pathetic trolls hitting you because you had a photo with a rather charismatic if not strange person should be ashamed. Good on you and ignore the haters. Fun photos that you will remember for years”
[Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images]
