Mika Brzezinski Slams Hilary Rosen’s Comment On Ann Romney: ‘That Woman Works. It Was An Incorrect Statement.’

 

On Wednesday night, Democratic strategist and DNC adviser Hilary Rosen appeared on CNN’s AC360, where she weighed in on Mitt Romney‘s trouble with female voters and his campaign’s relationship to his wife, Ann Romney. The mother of five, said Rosen, has “never worked a day in her life.”

The comment immediately made waves, prompting Ann Romney to create her own account on Twitter, where she wrote the following:

I made a choice to stay home and raise five boys. Believe me, it was hard work.

The Obama administration also reacted to Rosen’s comment. Barack Obama’s campaign manger Jim Messina, for instance, Tweeted this:

I could not disagree with Hilary Rosen any more strongly. Her comments were wrong and family should be off limits. She should apologize.

Politico reached out to Rosen, who stood by her initial remark. “I admire Ann for getting in the mix,” Rosen wrote in an email. “But she didn’t answer my follow up tweet to her! Which I thought was respectful and sincere.”

Here’s that Tweet:

I am raising children too. But u do know that most young american women have to earn a living AND raise their kids don’t u?

Rosen later Tweeted that she “admires” Ann Romney, but that her husband should not tout her as an “his expert on women and the economy.”

The team at Morning Joe took a look at the controversy this morning, playing a clip of Rosen’s original comment.

“That was an unfortunate statement,” said host Mika Brzezinski.

As Joe Scarborough sees it, this back-and-forth is indicative of a divide not often acknowledged by the media. “It’s amazing,” he said, “the divide between professional women, on one side, unmarried women or married women without children — predominantly Democratic. The other side of the divide? Married women with children who stay at home — predominantly Republican.” Rosen and Romney, he continued, represent this very divide.

John Heilemann noted that there’s no upside, politically, to Rosen’s comment where Democrats are concerned, but still held the Romney campaign to account for not immediately recognizing and having a firm take on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act during a recent conference call.

RELATED: Romney Spokeswoman: We Won’t Get Rid Of Lilly Ledbetter Act

Scarborough added that this sort of discussion is indicative that we’re venturing away from the primary and further toward the general election.

“Look,” said Brzezinski. “Mitt Romney needs to connect with women. Mitt Romney needs to do it. I think there’s some unfortunate… potentially even risk to sort of putting Ann out there, maybe even outside her comfort zone. Maybe not. But having said that, the comments that are making news this morning by Hilary Rosen… when someone has five boys and is working with her husband on three major jobs before he runs for president… Marriage is a team. And a lot of couples work together, and that couple works together. That woman works. It was an incorrect statement.”

Have a look, via MSNBC:

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