Liberal journalist Soledad O’Brien launched a pointed attack on Twitter after Joe Biden’s DNC acceptance speech was deemed “conservative,” a term that the Trump critic apparently found unbearable in being linked to the Democrat.
After Sarah Longwell, publisher of The Bulwark, praised Biden’s speech as more conservative than any Donald Trump has given because of a focus on “family, faith and character,” O’Brien jumped in to blast the commentary and tell Longwell to “reexamine” her “life choices.”
“What is wrong with you? What kind of a terrible person says this? Do you not know any people of color who over-index in serving their nation? Have you met no Black evangelicals? Re-examine your life choices, lady,” O’Brien tweeted.
“Character is not a conservative value. Not is it a ‘conservative theme,” she added.
The outrage over just the word “conservative” being attached to a Democrat left some on Twitter scratching their heads or using it as an example of the idolatry that can so often be a symptom of America’s binary politics.
“‘rE-eXaMiNe yOuR LiFE cHoIcES’ she wrote, as she leveraged her massive-follower account to launch a bad-faith attack against someone working toward the same goal as her,” Bulwark culture editor Sunny Bunch tweeted in response to O’Brien.
“Maybe you @soledadobrien should re-examine some life choices before disparaging people you clearly don’t know or know anything about. My friend @SarahLongwell25 has done more to counter Trump & Trumpism than most anyone,” Georgetown Law adjunct professor Carrie Cordero added.
The most confusing part of O’Brien’s attack is that Longwell is a Trump critic. She explained in a followup tweet that she is not accusing Democrats of lacking traditional values, but rather trying to praise Biden for demonstrating these principles more than the current president.
“Some seem to be reading this as though I’m suggesting Dems don’t share/embody these values as well. I’m not. I’m saying that American conservatism has made these themes their raison d'etre. Donald Trump embodies none of them. Joe Biden embodies them all.”
“This is a very intense attack for a comment meant to compliment Biden,” Longwell said in a post directly responding to O’Brien.
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