President Donald Trump’s inner circle blew up at Stanford Professor Pamela Karlan, one of the Democrats’ impeachment witnesses, on Wednesday after she made a tongue-in-cheek comment about President Donald Trump’s teenaged son’s name in her testimony in front of the House Judiciary Committee.
Karlan, a constitutional scholar, had brought up Barron Trump in response to Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s (D-TX) question asking what the difference was between kings and the President’s conduct.
The professor explained that unlike a king, who had the power to do whatever he wanted, Trump is bound by the Constitution.
“The Constitution says there can be no titles of nobility,” she said. “So while the President can name his son Barron, he can’t make him a baron.”
The pun drew some laughs and applause before Jackson Lee moved on.
Impeachment witness/constitutional scholar on one of the differences between Trump and a king: "The Constitution says there can be no titles of nobility, so while the President can name his son Barron, he can’t make him a baron.” pic.twitter.com/SO4IPF5bQz
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) December 4, 2019
Several hours later, Karlan apologized for the remark.
“I want to apologize for what I said earlier about the President’s son,” she said. “It was wrong of me to do that.”
“I wish the President would apologize, obviously, for the things that he’s done that’s wrong but I do regret having said that,” she added.
Impeachment witness apologizes for mentioning Barron Trump in her testimony earlier. pic.twitter.com/snfpgURkqN
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) December 4, 2019
The Trump crew was not amused by the pun.
“A minor child deserves privacy and should be kept out of politics,” tweeted first lady Melania Trump. “Pamela Karlan, you should be ashamed of your very angry and obviously biased public pandering, and using a child to do it.”
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham accused Karlan of making a “classless move.”
“Prof Karlan uses a teenage boy who has nothing to do with this joke of a hearing (and deserves privacy) as a punchline,” she tweeted.
The Trump campaign also got in on the action.
“Only in the minds of crazed liberals is it funny to drag a 13-year-old child into the impeachment nonsense,” Trump campaign spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement. “Pamela Karlan thought she was being clever and going for laughs, but she instead reinforced for all Americans that Democrats have no boundaries when it comes to their hatred of everything related to President Trump.”
McEnany demanded Democrats “immediately repudiate” the professor and “call on her to personally apologize” to Donald and Melania Trump.
This story has been updated to include Karlan’s apology.
This is all they’ve got. Pathetic.
Dear GOP, Sasha and Malia Obama are on hold on line one.
Fer chrissakes no apologies, pleez.
Chelsea Clinton in on Line 2 and Amy Carter is on Line 3…
It was really a good move to give Tom McClintock a prepared script. This is exactly the kind of embarrassing faux outrage behavior that gets the GOP in trouble.