Ireland: Melania’s model past nothing to be a bully about
Former supermodel and global women’s rights advocate Kathy Ireland is defending Melania Trump from anyone who is shaming the new first lady for her past modeling career.
“It’s not OK for anybody to take swipes at anyone else,” Ireland said yesterday during an appearance on Boston Herald Radio. “What message does that send to children? It dehumanizes people. You can disagree — that’s a freedom that we have and that’s wonderful — but to bully another human being is just unacceptable.”
Ireland’s comments came after Daily Beast columnist David Cay Johnston accused Melania Trump of doing “very sneaky porn” while analyzing President Trump’s tax documents from 2005 on MSNBC’s “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell.” The comment prompted the MSNBC anchor to cut him off, saying, “Hey, hey, hey,” and was met with a wave of backlash on social media.
Before she offered her take on those targeting Melania Trump’s past, Ireland’s “Morning Meeting” interview was aimed at promoting Hardwired Global’s Brave Ones campaign, an international initiative aimed at helping “restore human dignity” to the more than 1,500 Yazidi women and children who managed to escape sexual slavery at the hands of the Islamic State terror group.
“The healing for these girls, it’s a long journey. It’s unthinkable what they’ve gone through,” Ireland told hosts Jaclyn Cashman and Hillary Chabot. “(The program) teaches these girls for the very first time that they have rights, they have religious freedom, and they have value regardless of what happened to them.”
And though she praised the “extraordinary” work the organization has done on behalf of rescued Yazidi women, Ireland admitted the fight is far from over and noted there are still more than 3,000 girls currently held captive by ISIS. The global community, she said, has to step up to save them and then offer them the support they desperately need to recover.
“I think it is so horrific and I think there is a feeling of helplessness, and ‘can I really make a difference in this atrocity?’ The answer is yes — every person can do something,” Ireland said. “We must not give up, we must not turn a blind eye ... There is so much to be done.” People interested in supporting the Brave Ones initiative are encouraged to visit the organization’s website, hardwiredglobal.org, where they can make donations and learn more about how to start a campaign of their own.