Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy, mother of a child with Down syndrome, praised comedian Shane Gillis, who called kids like hers the R-word.
According to HuffPo, Gillis "casually dropped the R-word" while talking about Down syndrome children in his Saturday Night Live monologue.
"Although Gillis used the word to highlight how it was a slur and wrong to use, the punchline to the joke didn’t exactly justify his usage of it. In the setup for the joke, Gillis imagined his niece with Down syndrome being bullied by a white kid on a playground who calls her the slur, and then 'three Black kids come flying out of nowhere and just start whaling on that cracker,'" HuffPo's report said, adding, "his jokes just seemed to reinforce the stereotypes."
But Campos-Duffy had a different view.
"The Down syndrome stuff was actually really good," she insisted on Sunday. "Because part of the thing that Shane Gillis gets a lot of credit for is not being hemmed in by political correctness."
"And he'll say words that have now, they're clearly stricken off," co-host Will Cain pointed out. "You can't say these words. And not only will he say the word, he'll go deep into the topic."
"He uses the R-word in talking about Down syndrome," Campos-Duffy observed. "However, at the end of the sketch, what he says is what everyone who has a family member with Down syndrome, he said, liberals are so afraid, you know, he's obviously referring to the eugenics that's used against them."
"And he says, the funny thing is, they turn out to just be the best person in the family," she continued. "Which is totally true. You guys have met Valentino. He's like the happiest person in our family. He's like, he doesn't worry about the election. They don't care about all this stuff."
"I actually really loved it because I think ultimately, it was a very pro-life message and a really great message about what we're doing to people with Down syndrome, through abortion and through eugenics."
Campos-Duffy concluded that Gillis' monologue was a "net positive" for Down syndrome children.
