Donald Trump came to speak with the Washington Post editorial board on Monday, and it started out predictably enough, with Trump complimenting the staff on their new building. But deputy digital editor Karen Attiah says that when she asked him questions on racial inclusion, he responded by giving her a long-winded, confusing answer and then calling her “beautiful.”
Attiah wrote about the encounter in the Post:
As the meeting ended and we were walking out of the room, I thanked Trump for taking my question. He turned to me and said, ‘I really hope I answered your question,’ and added casually with a smile, ‘Beautiful.’ I was stunned. I didn’t say thank you, and I don’t think I smiled. He then walked out to meet with my Post colleagues briefly before heading to the elevator. I stayed in the conference room for a few minutes as it sunk in that the potential GOP nominee for president thought it was okay to comment on my appearance. Did he just say that?
Yep, he really did. On Twitter, Attiah quipped that she now knows what it’s like to be hit on by Trump:
But in the Post she said she wasn’t sure why he made the remark — was he trying to convince her he wasn’t racist, or maybe distract her from his inaccurate remarks about his polling numbers among Hispanics? The one thing she did take from the encounter: “The sexism that Trump puts on display against Megyn Kelly under the lights of national TV is not that much different from how he is in real life toward female journalists.”
