Actress and singer Bette Midler faced massive backlash after she ridiculed the accent of First Lady Melania Trump and calling her an "illegal alien" while the first lady spoke at the Republican National Convention.
Racist tweet
The 74-year-old award-winning performer tweeted about Melania Trump while watching the Republican Convention. At one tweet, Midler wrote, "Oh, God. She still can't speak English.", as reported by The Hill.
The followers of the actress immediately called her out for her xenophobic and racist tweet. Even critics, including Piers Morgan, accused her of belittling an immigrant who became a US citizen after she emigrated from Slovenia in the 1990s. Even the critics of President Donald Trump said that the first lady's accent is not a reason to criticize her.
Despite the immediate backlash, Midler launched another attack by tweeting, "She can speak several words in a few languages. Get that illegal alien off the stage!" She then called Melania an awful person who lacks warmth so severely that she had to "turn her AC down."
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Critics from both sides commented on Midler's attack and stated that what she tweeted was an unfair personal attack. Piers Morgan used Midler's words by tweeting, "Oh, God. Bette Midler's a racist."
Mark Curran, a Republican Senate candidate, was one of the people who called the attack xenophobic, while Kyle Feldscher from CNN labeled the attack as pathetic, as reported by Fox News.
JD Rucker, a conservative activist, condemned Midler's remark by tweeting that Hollywood and the Democratic Party "hate America." and that they "hate minorities and immigrants who do not fall in line with their abusive ideology."
Writer Joanna Schroeder said that there are a lot of things that Melania can be criticized for, such as being a racist birther, marrying the "worst president in US history," her offensive jacket, and supporting all of Trump's horrific policies. Melania's accent should not be a bad thing, Schroeder added.
Stefanie Williams said that Midler's tweet was a bad take as there are million legitimate reasons to criticize Melania and that her accent and ethnic background is not one of them.
Megan McArdle, a columnist of Washington Post, said that people who learn a foreign language as adults almost never lose their accents. She added that a public figure thinks that "learn English" is a devastating riposte to an immigrant giving a speech at a convention.
Stephen Sanchez of CBS News said that Midler's tweets are not acceptable and that people can debate the substance without attacking the person.
Melania's journey to the US
Meanwhile, Midler has not retracted the comment, and she continued her attack by posting footage of Melania questioning the validity of former US President Barack Obama's birth certificate, as reported by Variety.
In her RNC speech, the first lady talked about her migrant background and told the audience that she was able to achieve her own American dream.
Born in Slovenia, the former fashion model moved to the US in the 1990s, and she was granted American citizenship in 2006, a year before she gave birth to her son Barron Trump.
The first lady also called for an end to the "violence and looting" during the months of race protests after the death of George Floyd, a black man killed by police officers.
As for Bette Midler, she is known to be one of President Trump's critics and was branded as a "washed up psycho" by Trump. Midler then shared a quote in which Trump ridiculed Republican voters back in the 80s, a meme that went viral in 2015 and 2016.
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