Seems like Washington talking heads have been drinking all that drained swamp water.

Yesterday, there was the Sean Spicer-April Ryan debacle, and also Bill O’Reilly apologizing for talking about Rep. Maxine Waters’ hair.

Now, while Maxine Waters was busy being too busy for this sort of foolishness, and Twitter used the opportunity to turn a day of negativity into a #BlackWomenAtWork positive, Democratic consultant Angela Rye was trading barbs with former Illinois representative and current talk radio host, Joe Walsh.

This is why you served ONE term in the house, playboy. You're listening skills? Wack. Reading comprehension? More wack. #trollELSEWHERE https://t.co/HaC4O2pOI2

— a. rye✊???? (@angela_rye) March 28, 2017

Try again, you LAME! You guys STAY TWISTING WORDS! https://t.co/WYjgCFWOMw

— a. rye✊???? (@angela_rye) March 28, 2017

That’s just a little sampling of how things went down.

Apparently not one to know when he’s beaten, Walsh appeared with Rye on CNN today to continue his defense of Sean Spicer and Donald Trump while complaining that Rye and others are all too quick to pull the race card.

Walsh was also called on to defend himself for this tweet he sent out yesterday:

.@angela_rye And your way wrong on your main point Angela. We LOWERED the bar for Obama. He was held to a lower standard cuz he was black. https://t.co/OMXphLZUTj

— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) March 28, 2017

Rye framed her frustration at the accusation that Obama was held to a lower standard than other presidents by rolling out facts about our current commander-in-chief. Trump, Rye said, has “not one, not two, but three baby mothers,” is “someone who took a loan from their father that they call a small loan of $1 million,” “someone who discriminated against people who were just trying to find spots in his housing facilities” and “someone who took out full page ads calling for the deaths of five young black and brown boys.” She asked if Obama could have been president had even one of those things applied to him.

Walsh had no response.

When asked directly about his tweets yesterday, Walsh refused to take the out offered by the anchor, instead doubling down. “We elected our first black president. That was a big deal. And because of that, we lowered the standard,” he said, and also attacked the media, saying that Obama, “was held to a very low standard because the media so loved him.”

That went over well with his CNN host, as you might imagine.

It was very clear at conversation’s end that no minds were changed, sadly. Still, if nothing else, the sparring match allowed Angela Rye to express something on national television that I’m sure many of you lovely Blavity readers have felt.

“It’s very frustrating,” she said, “I’m tired of people telling me that black people are beneath a standard when we have to be twice as good all the time.”

Check out the full video below.

Joe Walsh

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