Kingston: No Difference Between Making Fun of Trump's Hair and Waters' Hair

CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 3/29/2017, 9:15 a.m.
A former adviser to President Donald Trump's campaign, referring to the controversy over Bill O'Reilly's remarks about Rep. Maxine Waters, …
Rep. Maxine Waters

By Eugene Scott

CNN

(CNN) -- A former adviser to President Donald Trump's campaign, referring to the controversy over Bill O'Reilly's remarks about Rep. Maxine Waters, said Wednesday there was a partisan double standard when it comes to making fun of someone's hair.

The Fox News host was widely criticized Tuesday when he cracked a joke about Waters' hair, calling it a "James Brown wig." The comment was seen as racist and sexist, and O'Reilly later apologized for his "dumb" joke.

"It always seems like it's OK to make fun of a conservative, but liberals, you can't touch them. They're off-limits," former Rep. Jack Kingston, a Georgia Republican, said on CNN's "New Day." "Making fun of Maxine Waters' hair, making fun of Donald Trump's hair -- I don't know what the difference is except one's a conservative and one's a liberal."

Kingston said O'Reilly's joke had "nothing to do with sex. It had nothing to do with race."

"Why is it when you say something about women's hair you're sexist?" he asked.

Host Chris Cuomo replied, "Because you're objectifying them in a way that doesn't happen to men."

Former White House Communications Director Jen Psaki disputed Kingston's remarks on the "New Day" segment, calling it "irresponsible and dangerous" to dismiss O'Reilly's comments toward Waters.

"Sexism is alive and well. So is racism," Psaki said. "I think we all need to be aware of that."

"It's not funny to joke about women of color or to joke about gender. Nobody finds it funny. They should not find it funny," she said.

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