Donald Trump Jr. may need a history lesson—or just a basic understanding of political shorthand.
Like many Republicans, President Donald Trump’s son took to Twitter on Wednesday morning to celebrate the victory of Republican Karen Hanel over Democrat Jon Ossoff in Tuesday’s special election to represent Georgia’s 6th Congressional District on Tuesday night.
Trump Jr. tweeted: “Karen Handel becomes 1st Woman Rep GA has sent to Congress. Still waiting for the glass ceiling stories, or do conservatives not get them?”
He’s wrong—maybe.
There have been five women elected to represent Georgia in the House of Representatives.
Karen Handel becomes 1st Woman Rep GA has sent to Congress. Still waiting for the glass ceiling stories, or do conservatives not get them?
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) June 21, 2017
Florence Reville Gibbs served in Congress from 1939 to 1941 and was the first women to represent the Peach State in the House. Helen Douglas Mankin served from 1945 to 1947, Iris Faircloth Blitch served from 1955 to 1963, Cynthia Ann McKinney served from 1993 to 2007, and Denise L. Majette served one term from 2003 to 2005.
Some defenders online seem to think Trump Jr. meant “Republican” when he wrote “Rep” in his tweet.
“Rep” traditionally is used as the shorthand for “Representative”—for example, once Handel is sworn in, she will be known as Rep. Karen Handel (R-Ga.).
If he did mean Republican, he would be right: All five women to previously serve in the House of Representatives were Democrats. (However, the party was much different when some of the women lawmakers served than it is today.) But if that’s the case, what glass ceiling is Trump Jr. referring to? A glass ceiling imposed on Republican women only?
If Trump Jr. truly wanted to avoid confusion he should have written “GOP” (same amount of characters) or even just “R” so he could have added a few more. Rookie mistake.
Regardless of what Trump Jr. meant, people were quick to call him out on the bad tweet.
If it means Representative, DJ is wrong. If it means Republican, then the only glass ceiling broken is the one imposed by his own party.
— Matthew Prorok (@MJtheProphet) June 21, 2017
She’s not the first woman. Is Google really that hard to use?
— Jeremy Weitz (@JeremyDWeitz) June 21, 2017
https://twitter.com/HollyontheMove/status/877509154478403584
https://twitter.com/EVNawesome/status/877516489317896192
