The takes continues to roll in hot and heavy Monday following comedian Michelle Wolf’s widely panned performance at the White House Correspondents Dinner Saturday night.
On the set of “Morning Joe,” co-host Mika Brzezinski didn’t shed a tear for the Trump roasting, but said attacks on White House press secretary Sarah Sanders appearance were too much.
“I really thought the pain of the people on stage when Sarah Huckabee Sanders was being made fun of. Everybody felt pain for her. She felt pain and it really bothered me,” she said. “She looked pained. She was being humiliated for a prolonged amount of time on stage. Do we really want to be laughing at that? It’s not funny.”
The on-air sentiments largely echoed a position Brzezinski took on Twitter after Wolf’s performance.
“Watching a wife and mother be humiliated on national television for her looks is deplorable. I have experienced insults about my appearance from the president,” she said. “All women have a duty to unite when these attacks happen and the WHCA owes Sarah an apology.”
Watching a wife and mother be humiliated on national television for her looks is deplorable. I have experienced insults about my appearance from the president. All women have a duty to unite when these attacks happen and the WHCA owes Sarah an apology.
— Mika Brzezinski (@morningmika) April 29, 2018
Both Brzezinski and co-host Joe Scarborough said that while moments of the Wolf monologue were funny, it might be worth rethinking the dinner, and the use of comedy to sell it to the broader public.
The “Daily Show” comedian was the subject of heated debate over the weekend for her dinner monologue, which included a series of raunchy jokes and the personal cuts against Sanders.
“We are graced with Sarah’s presence tonight. I have to say I’m a little starstruck — I loved you as Aunt Lydia in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’” said Wolf in one of the most cutting remarks of the evening.
Online, partisan warriors largely switched sides. Traditional humor police on the left came to Wolf’s defense with the “it’s just a joke line,” while right wing snowflake hunters melted down themselves over the insults to Sanders’ dignity.