Senator Wicker’s “hot mic” moment is a tempest in a teapot

by Alan Lange

Last night, “Bill Track Editor” Amelia Frappolli from CQ Roll Call tweeted a “hot mic” moment where it caught a seemingly sinister snippet of Senator Roger Wicker talking to Senator Cory Booker and Senate pages during the Senate vote to reopen the government.

Immediately, the moonbat universe went into hyperdrive. Raw Story picked it up (and called it ogling). The Daily Mail grabbed it and now even a TV station or two has.

Heard on a hot mic…

During the Senate CR vote, Sen. Wicker said, "I thought you were going to say this was one of the most beautiful girls. What about these others?" to either another senator or a male page about female pages. pic.twitter.com/ZTHxOVvK1F

— Amelia Frappolli (@AmeliaFrappolli) January 23, 2018

But if you watch THE ENTIRE exchange and not just the 14 second bite that Frappolli grabbed, you get the real context.

Booker comes into the Senate chamber and plops down in the middle of the pages and sits with them and starts chatting it up. Wicker joins them and they are clearly making small talk (what Southerners would call “the name game”) and talking about where the pages are from.

Sen. Booker had just explained that one of the pages was from one of the most beautiful places in the country.

Wicker then quipped to Sen. Booker, “I thought you were going to say this was one of the most beautiful girls. What about these others?”

The comment was meant as a light-hearted jest toward Sen. Booker, and in context it was a giant nothing-burger.

Frappolli doubled down to try and fan the social media flames.

It was really weird! Senate pages are high school students!

Here's the clip (that I made courtesy of @cspan)https://t.co/iUTlOMnTPE

— Amelia Frappolli (@AmeliaFrappolli) January 23, 2018

There wasn’t the least creepy thing about it . . . . in context. What’s this all about? Bless her heart . . . Clickbait. Frappolli entered Monday with about 1500 twitter followers. She’s now over 2,000.

We reached out to CQ Roll Call and Ms. Frappolli for comment and will add that when we receive it.

And people wonder why the public doesn’t trust the media.