Vice President Mike Pence took the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday to deliver some shots at the media for its much-maligned coverage of,Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
“Many in the mainstream media seemed quite taken with another dignitary,” Pence said in an opening wink at the CPAC audience.
“For all those in the media who think I should have stood and cheered with the North Koreans, I say the United States of America doesn’t stand with murderous dictatorships — we stand up to murderous dictatorships.”
The whole moment was interrupted by so much audience applause that it was hard at times to hear the vice president as he laid out the condemnation.
“For all the media fawning over the sister of the North Korean dictator, I think it’s important that every American knows who this person is and what she’s done,” said Pence before elaborating on some of her infamous résumé.
“The sister of Kim Jong-un is a central pillar of the most tyrannical and oppressive regime on the planet, an evil family clique that brutalizes subjugates, starves and imprisons it’s 25 million people,” said Pence who also noted that for her role in propagating the regime, she was currently under U.S. sanctions.
Pence’s remarks are perhaps the capstone of a long period of media flagellation over the bizarrely flattering coverage of Kim Yo-jong and the entire North Korean Olympic delegation.
Various media outlets — including Fox News — compared her to Ivanka Trump, or said that the delegation had won the “diplomatic” olympics.
The coverage was so bad, MSNBC host Willie Geist called it out in mega-viral tweet.
I can report South Koreans here in Pyeongchang are not as enthralled with Kim Yo Jong and the North Korean cheerleaders as it seems some media are back home.
Something about N.K. killing, starving, & imprisoning its people while threatening South Korea with nuclear annihilation.
— Willie Geist (@WillieGeist) February 11, 2018
Pence was preceded on stage by NRA chief Wayne LaPierre who vowed that his organization would not give an inch in its defense of the second amendment.