In February, while asking Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace about an upcoming interview with Sarah Palin, Don Imus inquired, “When you interview her, will she be sitting on your lap?” “One can only hope,” responded Wallace. Fox & Friends’ Gretchen Carlson criticized Wallace and Imus the next day, wondering, “Would you ask that of a man?” In a segment that aired on NPR yesterday, Cokie Roberts continued the criticism, calling it “appalling.” “They would never make such jokes about a minority, you’d be in terrible trouble,” said Roberts. “But you can still make sexist jokes about women and get away with it.”
During an appearance on Imus’ radio show this morning, Imus asked Wallace if he was “upset because Cokie Roberts has been slapping you around.” At first, Wallace acted like he didn’t know who Roberts was, but later in the segment, he joked about her watching a bondage scene that Imus imagined between the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol and Fox News’ Dick Morris:
IMUS: Oh, Bill Kristol’s a creep. Anyway, we’ll find him with a dog collar on with Dick Morris, crawling around some hotel room before it’s all over.
WALLACE: What, what…
IMUS: And you’ll be there with Sarah Palin on your lap, won’t you.
WALLACE: And if I am, Cokie Roberts will probably be watching.
Wallace then conceded that his original exchange about Palin sitting on his lap was “a big mistake,” but was amazed by “the idea that people would take any of this stuff seriously.” “It’s disturbing,” replied Imus. Watch it:
Unfortunately, it’s not surprising that that Wallace wouldn’t understand why people take sexism “seriously.” In January 2009, when FreedomWorks’ Dick Armey responded to an argument by Salon.com editor Joan Walsh with the sexist comment, “I’m so damn glad that you can never be my wife,” Wallace told right-wing radio host Mike Gallagher that he thought it was “pretty funny” that “feminists are very angry” about Armey’s sexist comments.
Transcript:
IMUS: I guess you must be upset because Cokie Roberts has been slapping you around, huh?
WALLACE: Who?
IMUS: Cokie Roberts.
WALLACE: Remind me who that is.
IMUS: Hahaha, so you know, that morning that you were on and I ask you, you were going to interview Sarah Palin, and I said is she going to be sitting on your lap. Here’s what I meant by that. And I would tell you otherwise. I meant, was it going to be a friendly interview.
WALLACE: No, that’s not what you meant at all.
IMUS: What, it absolutely is.
WALLACE: No.
IMUS: Because I’ve said that about, I’ve said that about men guests on other programs and Charles will testify to that.
CHARLES: No, I won’t.
WALLACE: Of course, you were asking Ricky Martin at the time.
IMUS: No, but I mean, that is what I meant. And Charles is being an a-hole. The point is, you, you asigned a sexual connontation to my remarks, so…
WALLACE: I simply was trying to get out of the conversation.
IMUS: Well.
CHARLES: It actually was metaphorical.
IMUS: Yes.
CHARLES: Whether or not it would be a pleasant encounter.
IMUS: That’s, that was my point. And then Cokie, of course, having her mind in the gutter most of the time — nice, she’s a nice woman by the way — decided to get all…
WALLACE: If you say so.
IMUS: Decided to get herself all hysterical about it while she’s on her way over to be chromeakeyed (sp?) in front of some building where she’s not really standing to report the news on ABC or whereever she works now.
WALLACE: She didn’t only get chromoekeyed (Sp?), she also put on a coat to stand inside and pretend that she was standing outside the Capitol.
IMUS: That’s right. Talking with Chris Wallace, here on the Imus in the Morning program. It’s turned ugly and it turned ugly at his impetus because of you attacked me first, so. Speculating on my life expectancy.
WALLACE: Is that the end of the Cokie Roberts segment…
IMUS: No, unless…
WALLACE: Because that was really pretty interesting.
IMUS: Well no, unless you want to man up and strike back or you just going to roll over like a fat seal. Well, I’m sorry about that fat seal reference. He may be a little touchy there.
WALLACE: You’re looking particularly cadaver-esque today.
[…]
IMUS: You don’t put anybody on who I recommend that you put on, so I’m not putting on any stiffs who you want me to put on.
WALLACE: Well, who do you want me to put on my show?
IMUS: I forget who I recommended, but I’m sure Matt Taibbi was one of them. I think John Leboutillier was another.
WALLACE: Yes, you did mention John Leboutillier.
IMUS: Yeah, and so you…
WALLACE: We don’t have formers on. We generally have people who are in office.
IMUS: Well, ok, if that’s the attitude you want to have. They guy’s brilliant. You have that dope William Kristol on who’s as close to being a moron as you can possibly be.
WALLACE: Why do you have something against Bill Kristol?
IMUS: He’s a, he’s a jerk. And you, Leboutillier is brilliant. You know, he’s brilliant like Krauthammer’s brilliant.
WALLACE: Krauthammer’s pretty darn smart, but so is Bill Kristol.
IMUS: Oh, Bill Kristol’s a creep. Anyway, we’ll find him with a dog collar on with Dick Morris, crawling around some hotel room before it’s all over.
WALLACE: What, what…
IMUS: And you’ll be there with Sarah Palin on your lap, won’t you.
WALLACE: And if I am, Cokie Roberts will probably be watching.
IMUS: Well, that’s ugly. Speaking of all of that, kinky stuff.
WALLACE: Why can’t you people understand that, you know, it was just a stupid joke on your part and I sat there and tried to top it, which was really a big mistake on my part. But the idea that people would take any of this stuff seriously…
IMUS: Is disturbing. It’s a quarter to the hour, we’re talking to Chris Wallace, who hosts Fox News Sunday on the Fox News Channel.