Stacey Abrams SOTU response role comes with guaranteed privilege, hero status – Washington Examiner

Stacey Abrams hit the jackpot when she was picked to deliver the Democrats’ response to President Trump’s State of the Union Address: She’s a female minority who can’t be held politically accountable for anything because she doesn’t hold any office.

ABC News on Monday ran the headline, “For Democrats, Stacey Abrams sends key message on gender and race in [State of the Union] response.”

A news article in the New York Times that same day featured a bunch of Democrats who want Abrams to run for U.S. Senate (because in today’s Democratic Party, nothing positions you for national office like a failed campaign in the style of Beto O’Rourke).

There is no other person on the national scene who enjoys more privilege among the national press than Abrams, who lost her bid for Georgia governor last year and refused to accept the result long after the writing was already on the wall. Her delivery of the response will fit the Trump-hates-women-and-minorities narrative that Democrats and the news media run day in and out.

Even if she botches the response on Tuesday, Abrams will still be a hero for having taken on white male Trump. That’s because she can expect the national media to frame the conflict as an epic battle between white and black, privilege and victim.

In November last year, Trump engaged several black reporters who confronted him with critical questions by doing what he does with literally any reporter of any race — he lashed out. He called American Urban Radio Networks and CNN contributor April Ryan a “loser” who “doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing.” He told CNN correspondent Abby Phillip that she asks “a lot of stupid questions.” And he accused PBS reporter Yamiche Alcindor of asking a “racist” question.

All of those women are black, and the rest of the media would never let you forget it. Never mind that Trump behaves this way with anyone in the media he deems disrespectful.

CNN’s Jim Acosta, who is Cuban, had his White House credential stripped, and Trump called him “rude” and “terrible.”

NBC’s Peter Alexander is white and Trump told him, “I’m not a big fan of yours, either.”

The Washington Post’s George Will is white and Trump has said he “looks like a dumb guy.”

The entire 2016 Republican primary field of candidates, almost all white men, were picked off one by one as Trump ruthlessly mocked their appearances and personalities.

Right after taking office, Trump belittled white male Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-Calif., for crying on TV, giving him the nickname “Cryin’ Chuck Schumer.”

There was little sympathy for any of these victims of Trump’s ire from liberals and the press. But after Abrams gets her time on national TV, she’ll become an exceptional victim for the media to hold up as an example of Trump’s “bigotry.”