Leave Beyoncé Out Of This

Carl Williott | October 11, 2016 10:17 am

Why. Why are conservative talking heads so insistent on using Beyoncé as some sort of hot button political football? The latest instance comes from a Donald Trump crony on CNN trying to equate her “Formation” lyrics to Trump’s real-life quote celebrating sexual assault.

Former New York Lieutenant Governor Betsy McCaughey tries to argue that Hillary Clinton is a hypocrite because she supports Beyoncé, who has some profanity in her songs, and so if one is offended by Trump’s bus comments, one must also be offended by Beyoncé’s swear words.

Here’s her quote from CNN last night (October 11):

I abhor lewd and bawdy language. I don’t listen to rap music. I don’t like that kind of thing… It’s fully of the F-word, the P-word, the B-word, the A-word, all that stuff… I wanted to point something out, which is that Hillary Clinton expresses that she finds the language on that bus horrific, but, in fact, she likes language like this: “I came to slay, bitch. When he F me good, I take his ass to Red Lobster.” That happens to be from Beyoncé, her favorite performer, whom she says she idolizes and would like to imitate. So you know what I’m saying to you? There’s a lot of hypocrisy in Hillary Clinton expressing such horror at the language on the bus.

It would be hilarious if it weren’t so horrifying that McCaughey thinks the issue was merely that Trump’s language was uncouth, and not the message of the language. So under her logic, if he’d said “grab them by the crotch” instead of “grab them by the pussy” this would be no story.