Remember in 2017 when men silencing women and calling them names like “trash” was considered sexism? As it turns out, those rules are waived when the woman is a Republican.

What a difference two years makes. Back in 2017, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) was on the floor of the U.S. Senate reading a 1986 letter from Coretta Scott King opposing the nomination of Jeff Sessions to a federal judgeship.

It was one of Warren’s contributions to the debate in the Senate over President Trump’s nomination of Sen. Sessions for attorney general.

Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), who was presiding over the Senate at the time, objected to the reading of the letter, stating that it impugned the character of another member of the Senate, which is against Senate rules. A short time later, Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) spoke during the debate, agreeing with Daines.

In spite of Warren’s objections, she was prevented from reading the letter on the floor of the Senate and was forbidden to take part in future floor debates about Sessions. She later read it just outside the Senate on Facebook.

“She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted,” said McConnell at the time.

Democrats and the mainstream media were outraged. A woman in the minority had been “silenced” by powerful men. In addition to the media running defense for Warren, “she persisted” turned into a popular Democrat/feminist rallying cry. #LetLizSpeak and #ShePersisted were viral hashtags. A year later, “She persisted” was even the theme for women’s history month.

Some women even got “She persisted” tattoos.

Over two years after the controversy, Warren is selling “She persisted” merch on her campaign website.

Now let’s contrast Warren’s star treatment after being rebuked in the Senate to the nasty scolding Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) received from Democrats, Never Trumpers, and the mainstream media after she persisted in trying to ask questions of Marie Yovanovitch Friday over House Intel Committee Chair Adam Schiff’s objections.

For a good visual of what happened, here’s video of Schiff gaveling down Stefanik, and Stefanik and Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) objecting:

The optics were terrible. You had Schiff, the most powerful man on the House Intel Committee, trying to silence a female member of the minority party on national TV. Nunes even pointed it out, accusing him of “gagging” Stefanik.

Instead of praising Stefanik for persisting and instead of slamming Schiff for shouting down a woman, Democrats and the MSM led the Twitter pile-on, accusing Nunes and Stefanik of breaking House rules, with some suggesting they staged the incident to make Democrats look bad.

The Washington Post‘s Aaron Blake:

Spoiler: They don't. — Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) November 15, 2019

Politico‘s Kyle Cheney:

The hearing rules: 45 minutes for Schiff/counsel followed by 45 minutes for Nunes/counsel. No other members in this round. Then 5 minutes for each member, alternating D and R. The House voted these rules into effect last month. — Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) November 15, 2019

CNN “fact checker” Daniel Dale:

Why might the Republicans have made a show of trying to get Rep. Stefanik to speak even though that was clearly against the rules of the hearing? To get tweets like this circulating in right-wing media: https://t.co/ES455gkiJQ — Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 15, 2019

The Daily Beast‘s Jackie Kucinich:

Or it's against the rules passed before this began. Chair +rankers + lawyers, then members. It was a stunt. https://t.co/pHTJ55BnHK — Jackie Kucinich (@JFKucinich) November 15, 2019

Never Trumper Tom Nichols:

I see Elise Stefanik is still wingman for Nunes. — Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) November 15, 2019

Democratic strategist Adam Parkhomenko:

Elise Stefanik has thoroughly disgraced herself today and made it clear she wants to join Devin Nunes and Gym Jordan in selling out her country. And now she’s raising money off of this atrocious behavior. Follow Democrat @TedraCobb and help us get her to 100,000 followers today! https://t.co/zsYG5IXIOv — Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) November 16, 2019

Republicans were quick to point out to these same people how starkly different their treatment was of Warren and other Democratic women in similar situations vs. their treatment of Stefanik:

It's not an unfair point, @AaronBlake. The Chairmen is empowered to enforce Committee rules, and that's true in both the House and the Senate. But boy is it hard to ignore the difference in how these two things were covered. pic.twitter.com/qD466q9nSR — John Noonan (@noonanjo) November 15, 2019

Contrast CNN mocking a rotating story on Fox homepage today vs CNN homepage during 2017 confirmation battles. pic.twitter.com/dOXmPW74Vo — Watchdog (@LibWatchdog) November 15, 2019

Watching woke Libs and the media attack @EliseStefanik for something they all fawned over Elizabeth Warren for is the most 2019 thing ever. #Neverthelessshepersisted — Kevin McLaughlin (@KevinMcLaughlin) November 16, 2019

So @ewarren did this during Jeff Session's confirmation and everyone cheered her. @EliseStefanik stands up for herself in a contentious hearing and she gets absolutely obliterated online for it. Don't tell me you care about all women when you're really just a political shill. — Ellie Bufkin (@ellie_bufkin) November 16, 2019

Here’s another important point to make in pointing out the media/left’s double standards in how they treat women in politics: “Republican” George Conway, who called Stefanik “trash” over the weekend and helped circulate a fake picture of her pointing her middle finger during the hearings, will still be a Dem/media darling and invited on all the shows and to all the cool cocktail parties:

George Conway also retweeted a post that referred to Elise Stefanik as “an asshole.” He’ll be back on TV and given any print platform when impeachment proceedings continue last week, almost guaranteed: https://t.co/TzAEXo5c7b — Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) November 16, 2019

I’m so old that I remember when men silencing women and calling them “trash” was considered sexism worthy of condemnations. I guess those rules are waived when the woman is a Republican.

— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —



