Stephen Moore, Donald Trump’s controversial Federal Reserve nominee, spent the early 2000s writing noxious sexist commentary that will only make him more controversial … and will probably thrill Donald Trump. Moore took shots at his own wife for voting Democratic, but his major issue was with women in—or anywhere near—sports.
Moore responded to the news of a woman refereeing an NCAA men’s game by writing that “The NCAA has been touting this as example of how progressive they are. I see it as an obscenity. Is there no area in life where men can take vacation from women? What's next? Women invited to bachelor parties? Women in combat? (Oh yeah, they've done that already.) Why can't women ref the women's games and men the men's games. I can't wait to see the first lady ref have a run in with Bobby Knight.”
Here’s some news for Moore: Any woman who makes it to be the first refereeing in a given level of men’s sports has already encountered plenty of bullies, and triumphed despite them.
Moore didn’t stop there, though. In the hectoring tones of the bully who thinks being a dickwagon shows how funny he is, he went on to write “Here's the rule change I propose: No more women refs, no women announcers, no women beer venders, no women anything.” Har har har. Oh, but there’s more. “There is, of course, an exception to this rule. Women are permitted to participate, if and only if, they look like Bonnie Bernstein. The fact that Bonnie knows nothing about basketball is entirely irrelevant.” Yes! He totally went to “women should be permitted in the boys club if and only if I personally want to objectify them” territory. He even took it a step further, calling for Bernstein to do her reporting while wearing a halter top.
This is a man who was trying waaaaay too hard, and what he was trying at was showing himself to be a sexist, bullying prick. In short, it was just the thing to really cement Trump’s view that this is someone who should have a major say in the U.S. economy.
