On Thursday, President Barack Obama had plenty of nice things to say about California Attorney General Kamala Harris. He even made a comment that caused some uproar in the political world, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Obama was speaking at a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee in the Bay Area when he described Harris as “brilliant,” “dedicated” and “tough.” He also added the following comment about Harris: “She also happens to be, by far, the best-looking attorney general.”
Reports from the fundraiser said that the crowd laughed, which caused Obama to say, “It’s true! C’mon.”
Quite a few people were not happy with the comment, especially since woman have worked so hard to be recognized for their accomplishments instead of their appearance. Obama’s comments were described as ‘disgraceful’ by New York Magazine writer Jonathan Chait.
“Women have a hard time being judged purely on their merits,” he wrote. “Discussing their appearance in the context of evaluating their job performance makes it worse.”
At the Washington Post, writer Jonathan Capehart said that Obama was saying the “God’s honest truth,” and that the two have been friends for a long time.
The president wasn’t “luridly cat-calling a woman he doesn’t know,” he wrote. “If I thought for one moment that’s what was going on, you better believe I’d hammer him for it. But that’s not the case here. Far from it. So lighten up, people.”
