It’s Thanksgiving week at the White House, which usually just means turkey pardons and awkward speeches. But not this year! This season, President Donald Trump and his team are more interested in going after female journalists instead.
Their latest target is Kate Bennett, who is a former CNN White House correspondent and the author of Free, Melania: The Unauthorized Biography. She posted on X (formerly Twitter) that Donald Trump seems to reserve his worst insults for female reporters. Kate Bennett added that she believes that it is not only because they’re women but because they’re typically the ones asking the tough questions. And honestly, it does sound like a reasonable theory, considering the patterns.
Now this is where the White House Rapid Response team comes in, and rather than disagreeing with Kate Bennett’s point, they proved it! We are serious because they snapped on a post:
“Give this a thought: how big of a scumbag you must be to have been fired from CNN of all places.”
Aside from being schoolyard-level in its audacity, the attack was also factually wrong, as expected. Kate Bennett wasn’t fired at all because she left CNN in 2023 to work in strategic communications and now serves as VP of brand strategy at the government communications firm Invariant. Her departure was public and (contrary to the White House’s parrots) completely voluntary.
This is Donald Trump in Scotland today for a groundbreaking on a new golf course. You’re welcome. pic.twitter.com/rQb2nBLWnc
— Kate Bennett (@KateBennett_DC) May 1, 2023
And yet, a few days ago, at Mar-a-Lago, CBS’s Nancy Cordes tried to correct Donald Trump. That’s when he called her “stupid” repeatedly, because surely it’s normal for a strong leader to bully a veteran journalist. Before that, Bloomberg’s Catherine Lucey was hit with a “Quiet, piggy.” ABC’s Mary Bruce got labeled “a terrible person” for asking about Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist who was murdered. And the New York Times’ Katie Rogers is, according to the president, “ugly inside and out.”
Yeah, we’re sensing a theme too. Donald Trump’s defenders (like white House press secretary Karoline Leavitt) insist he’s just “frank.” Others notice that the only people he routinely targets are the ones who hold him accountable, and somehow, a considerable number of them happen to be women. Now we have to remember that these are some of those same women who have reported r— threats, online harassment, and were almost doxxed after being targeted. The Media Freedom Coalition warned that when powerful institutions attack women journalists, it’s an attempt to silence them, on top of being an uncalled-for insult.
And Kate Bennett’s observation makes more sense for this very reason, as women are often the ones who push past rehearsed talking points and who won’t sit back when truth is bent into propaganda. But why deal with that when you can take part in some good old name-calling? Honestly, this moment isn’t about whether one likes Donald Trump or hates him, but isn’t the presidency being used to intimidate people whose job is to hold him accountable?
Looks like women should stay quiet if they want to be safe, even in 2025!
NEXT UP: Melania Trump’s Documentary Could Revive Brett Ratner’s Career — At a Huge Cost For Secret Service
