Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin is being ridiculed for calling Donald Trump’s cabinet nominations ‘1,000 shades of white’.
Rubin, 62, a former conservative commentator at the Jeff Bezos-owned paper, now largely advocates for Democrats and on her podcast, ‘Jen Rubin’s Green Room.’
Speaking on MSNBC Rubin did not hold back as she ripped Trump’s nominations over the color of their skin.
‘Many of these people including Tulsi Gabbard have backgrounds that would never make them eligible for any government post, let alone for secretaries of these important government agencies,’ Rubin began.
‘But I do think there are a couple of things going on. First, I have to comment, when you put up all of those faces it was a thousand shades of white. Have you noticed that?’
It prompted MSNBC host Ali Velshi to laugh out loud at Rubin’s comment.
‘I actually felt that as I was reading them we should certainly circle a few of them so we can say this is the one I’m talking about now,’ joked Velshi, who is of Indian heritage.
But Rubin was not done with her excoriating judgment on Trump’s recent picks.
‘Secondly, there is a certain level of catastrophe and dysfunction that will sink these people. What happens if there is terrorist attack, God forbid? What happens if there is a pandemic?’ Rubin asked.
‘The problem with being extreme, irresponsible, ignorant, is when bad stuff happens no one to blame but you.
‘The good news is that there’s people may not get everything they want, but the bad news is that a lot of bad stuff may happen to a lot of innocent people because of them.’
On Friday, Trump made a flurry of Cabinet pics including nominating Dr. Marty Makary to lead the FDA, former Republican Rep. Dave Weldon of Florida to lead the CDC, Fox News contributor Janette Nesheiwat was tapped to be the nation’s next surgeon general while Sebastian Gorka has been nominated to serve Trump’s senior director for counterterrorism.
Conservatives on X were not impressed with Rubin’s take.
‘This is a mental illness’, wrote Eric Daugherty, a journalist on a local Florida paper.
‘This is what MSNBC sees as an “expert opinion.” The first thing she notices is skin color. Wild!’ tweeted journalist Collin Rugg.
‘Her argument was that Trump’s picks don’t have enough merit but then suggested he should pick people by their skin color, not merit. Makes zero sense.’
‘Racists see everything through the lens of race. This blinds them to the point that they can’t see any other factors accurately,’ added Chip Gibbons.
‘The hate against white people is real. Nobody wants DEI hires. They want credible people with merit filling these positions. It’s not a hard concept to grasp,’ said another user.
Rubin signed an op-ed on behalf of several Washington Post columnists outraged at the paper’s refusal to endorse Kamala Harris just before the election.
She has also been calling for a boycott of MSNBC as a response to the hosts of Morning Joe’s secret meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, despite frequently appearing herself on the network.
The Washington Post’s boss hit back at claims it was Jeff Bezos who squashed the paper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris.
The outlet, which is owned by the billionaire Amazon founder, announced it will not be supporting either presidential candidate.
A Harris endorsement had been drafted and was being reviewed by Bezos, according to the paper’s page editor David Shipley but was spiked just 11 days before the election.
At least one editor has resigned, according to CNN, which also reports that thousands of readers have pulled their subscriptions.
However, publisher Will Lewis rejected claims that Bezos was involved in the endorsement decision.