When she isn’t too busy picking Ben Carson’s brain about his campaign’s official rap song, CNN anchor and Legal View host Ashleigh Banfield discusses other topics pivotal to the 2016 presidential race. For example, consider her Wednesday sit-down with Donald Trump spokesperson and supposed Death Eater Katrina Pierson about the Republican front-runner’s third and current wife, Melania Trump. Specifically, whether or not the former centerfold model’s past photography shoots are too “racy” for the White House.
Melania recently entered the political spotlight when she spoke at a rally following her husband’s victory in the South Carolina primary. Her comments surprised many who either didn’t realize she was a naturalized American citizen from Slovenia (i.e. an immigrant), or had noticed, but didn’t care. Hence her time in the 24-hour cable news cycle as of late, which was increased by an exclusive interview with MSNBC prior to Banfield’s program.
“There’s no question, Melania Knauss-Trump is a very bright woman, speaks several languages. She’s articulate. She’s lovely,” the CNN anchor admitted to Pierson. “But she also has done some pretty racy photo spreads in the past. I mean, Maxim magazine-styled racy photograph spreads. I think it’s hard to get your mind around the first lady living in the White House with those photographs out there. Does that present a problem at all for the campaign?”
Pierson didn’t think so, telling Banfield that Melania’s previous career as a model and the photos it produced weren’t seen as a problem by the Trump campaign.
“As you just heard, she’s beautiful, she’s smart, she’s even funny, she’s an entrepreneur. She was a model. That was her career,” the Trump spokesperson reiterated. “We don’t feel bad about that at all. She is so strong as a woman.”
In August, the Daily Mail was only too happy to point out the possible contradictions in the stance Pierson took with Banfield — especially because Melania had said she “would be very traditional like Betty Ford or Jackie Kennedy” at the time. What contradictions, you ask? Aside from her nude photo spread for GQ and dozens of other appearances in Sports Illustrated and similar outlets, the model had also talked at length about her sex life with shock jock Howard Stern.
Banfield didn’t explicitly reference any of these, though she did add that state, national and international beauty pageants had removed crowns from winners who were later implicated by “racy pictures in the past.” In other words, the possibility might exist that Trump’s political opponents — whether during the campaign or, if elected, after his election — would use Melania’s past to discredit her status as a potential First Lady (and Trump’s presidency by extension).
Then again, Melania isn’t even running for office, so why should questions like Banfield’s even matter — let alone be asked? One could even make the argument that the potential criticisms suggested (if not encouraged) by Banfield aren’t all that different from jabs directed at Hillary Clinton regarding her appearance and femininity.
(Via Talking Points Memo)