I won’t back away from my belief that Professor Pamela Karlan erred in mentioning Barron Trump, the president’s youngest child, in her testimony this week before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.
She sought to make a quip about how the Constitution doesn’t allow presidents to create nobility among citizens, saying that even though he could name his son “Barron,” he couldn’t make him a “baron.” Critics jumped all over Karlan, who later apologized for her remark.
I want to add that she said nothing critical about the boy. There was no snarky intent directed at the teenager.
I also want to point out that previous first sons and daughters haven’t escaped the public’s barbs. Indeed, those children of presidents have absorbed plenty of hurtful punishment from cruel Americans.
Do you remember snide remarks made about, oh, Amy Carter, or Chelsea Clinton, or Barbara and Jenna Bush, or Malia and Sasha Obama? For that matter, do you remember, too, how critics of President Obama questioned his birth, his faith?
Look, children of presidents are off limits. Professor Karlan did not need to invoke Barron Trump’s name while making some sort of silly quip about constitutional limitations on the presidency. Then again, what she said was bland compared to the poisonous rhetoric that’s been thrown at presidential children over many years.
Let us just not go there. Hmm?
