Conservative commentator Megyn Kelly was among those rising to the defense of Casey DeSantis, wife of Florida governor and GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, after members of the liberal media went on a name-calling spree.
MSNBC analyst David Jolly, a former GOP representative, kicked things off Saturday during Jonathan Capehart’s show, referring to Mrs. DeSantis as “America’s Karen,” USA Today reported.
Another guest one-upped him, comparing the Florida first lady to Serena Waterford, a villainous character in “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a chilling, dystopian book and TV series.
They went on to joke about there being “all kinds of names” they could call the candidate’s wife, including “Walmart Melania,” Fox News reported.
Kelly was among those who called out the critics, basically labeling the terms as sour grapes, according to the New York Post.
“I think the reason they are reacting so angrily to [DeSantis] is they accurately perceive her as a threat,” Kelly said during her podcast Monday.
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“If [critics] were saying this sort of thing about a leftie, these same [commentators] would be outraged by the rampant misogyny. But as always, it’s always fair game against a Republican wife.
“They hate her in a special way. It’s almost coming at her more viciously than with [former first lady] Melania [Trump].”
The conservatives on the Fox News show “Outnumbered” took their MSNBC counterparts to task for their “ugly” attacks, Fox reported.
“For them to mock a woman who’s been an incredible figure in government as well as socio-politically in this country, who has done so much including beat breast cancer, that was an ugly mockery,” Emily Compagno said on the Monday edition of “Outnumbered.”
“It has no place, certainly on mainstream media, but apparently because she is conservative, then all bets are off.”
Ron DeSantis shared his perspective Monday on Fox’s “Varney & Co.,” Fox Business reported.
“My wife is an incredibly strong first lady of Florida, a fantastic mother and a great wife, and that threatens the left,” DeSantis said.
“So she and I kind of shrug it off because we know it just shows they view her as a threat, because the message that she was bringing in Iowa about the rights of parents and how we are not going to take this anymore with the left trying to indoctrinate our kids, they understand that that resonates not just with Republican parents, with independent parents and, yes, with Democrat parents.”
Even the ultra-left New York Times recently acknowledged that Casey DeSantis is a tremendous asset to her husband.
“Widely considered to be her husband’s most important adviser, Ms. DeSantis is the ‘not-so-secret weapon,’ the ‘second in command’ and the ‘primary sounding board’ of his political operation,” the Times wrote July 6.
“Now, in the early weeks of his presidential campaign, she’s added yet another position to her portfolio: humanizer-in-chief.”
That Times piece was one of several liberal news sources to label Casey DeSantis her husband’s “greatest asset. Or, depending on who’s opining, maybe his greatest liability.”
“She’s the antidote to his much-documented struggles to connect. Or a virus infecting his insular campaign, encouraging her husband’s distrust of those outside his tight-knit political orbit,” the outlet claimed.
“Yet for Mr. DeSantis, the hope is simply that his wife can offer a way to secure the holy grail of presidential campaigns: reliability.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.