Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson appeared on Your World with Neil Cavuto Monday to discuss his work with the United Way. During his conversation with host Neil Cavuto, Wilson would not allow himself to be used as a political pawn by the Fox News anchor and refused to play along with Cavuto’s attempt to get Wilson to criticize the First Lady. Cavuto tried to compare Wilson’s work with the United Way in assisting with childhood hunger with Michelle Obama’s initiative to end childhood obesity. Cavuto claimed that the First Lady has failed so far to get kids to eat healthier, likely due to her being a “food police mommy.” He wanted to know what Wilson was doing that was working and if he could provide some pointers to Mrs. Obama.

Below is video of the exchange, courtesy of Fox News:

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CAVUTO: Well, Russell, what are we doing wrong then as a nation though with this urging them to eat healthy or set up these school lunch programs where they’re urged to eat healthy. I mean, Michelle Obama’s trying. Many argue that she’s getting to be too much of a food police mommy. Be that as it may, whatever she’s doing isn’t working and I’m wondering what you’re doing that is working. What’s the difference? WILSON: Well, the first lady, I have so much respect for her. I was able to meet her and the President, obviously, you know when we went to the Super Bowl, we won the Super Bowl and got to go to the White House. You know, I think at the end of the day, you know the kids, it’s tough to eat healthy. You know, I remember when I was a little kid I was always struggling trying to eat healthy.

Everything with Fox News has to be filtered through a prism of Obama-hate so that it meets the approval of its old, white angry base of viewers that are still apoplectic over the country electing a black man, twice, to be President of the United States. In this instance, even though this was supposed to be a feel-good piece about a pro athlete getting involved with charity and helping out his community, Cavuto had to find a way to shoe-horn criticism about the Obamas. Unfortunately for Fox News, Wilson wasn’t the least bit interested in playing their game.

It used to be that First Ladies were generally left alone by the press. At the very least, they weren’t attacked and denigrated at the level that we’ve seen occur with Mrs. Obama. Even Hillary Clinton, who received some flak early in her husband’s first term due to concerns that she was too involved politically, ended up garnering tons of sympathy by the end of the decade due to Bill’s affair with Monica Lewinsky.The thing is, wanting kids to eat healthier and not be obese at a young age should be generally noncontroversial. However, since she is Michelle Obama, conservatives have to go crazy and oppose anything she is publicly supports or endorses.

As for Wilson, all he wanted to to do was get the word out about his cause. Thankfully, he was able to easily ignore Cavuto’s attempts to have him make a public condemnation of the First Lady and get his message across. Congrats to Wilson for his charity work. I doubt we’ll see you make another appearance on Fox News.

H/T Talking Points Memo