Why is this Fox News host speculating about AOC’s sex life? | Arwa Mahdawi

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy and United States homeland security adviser, is one of the most influential people in the Trump administration. He is also such a hate-filled little man that members of his own family are publicly rebuking him.

During Donald Trump’s first term, in 2018, Miller’s uncle, Dr David Glosser, wrote a piece for Politico calling Miller an “immigration hypocrite”. Glosser noted that if Miller’s hardline immigration policies “had been in force a century ago, our family [Jewish refugees who fled to the US from Europe to avoid persecution] would have been wiped out”.

Then, in July, a woman called Alisa Kasmer, Miller’s cousin and former babysitter, wrote a viral Facebook post calling the Trump aide “the face of evil”. Miller’s cruelty, she said, left her feeling “ashamed and shattered”.

While some of his extended family can’t seem to stand him, Miller does have a very enthusiastic cheerleader in the form of the Fox News host Jesse Watters. Last October, Watters claimed that his show’s audience believes that Miller is “some sort of sexual matador” and asked Miller to comment on this. The Maga-dor responded by telling young men to “be the alpha … show that you are not a beta … Be a proud and loud Trump supporter and your dating life will be fantastic.” This is terrible advice for many reasons, not least of which is the fact that gen Z women are the most liberal group in the US.

I’m afraid it doesn’t end there; a couple of weeks ago, the Fox News host had Miller’s wife, Katie (a Maga bigwig in her own right), on his show to chat about how sexy Stephen is. “What is it like being married to such a sexual matador?” Watters joked. Very inspiring, apparently; he wakes up every morning excited about how he is going to “defeat the left”.

It doesn’t even end there. This week, Watters once again sang his favourite man’s praises on TV, calling Miller a “policy savant”. He added: “Men who are high-value men, like Stephen Miller, take risks. They’re brave, they’re unafraid, they’re confident and they’re on a mission. And they have younger wives with beautiful children.”

Watters went on to claim that the representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez “wants to sleep with Miller … it is so obvious”. The whole spiel was so weird that even Watters’s colleague, Greg Gutfeld, appeared disturbed. “That was pretty creepy,” Gutfeld said.

While Watters doesn’t seem to need an excuse to praise Miller, this week’s episode wasn’t entirely unprompted. Rather, Watters was reacting to an Instagram video in which Ocasio-Cortez called Miller a clown and urged people to laugh at Maga.

“Miller looks like he is so mad that he is 4’10” that he’s taking that anger out at any other population possible,” AOC said in the video. “Laugh at them! Laugh at them!”

It’s not particularly clever to mock someone’s height. (AOC has since said she loves “short kings” and was talking about how “big or small someone is on the inside”.) Nevertheless, the lawmaker is absolutely correct that the way to get under the skin of people in Maga-land is to laugh at them. Ghouls like Trump and Miller don’t care if you call them evil or hypocritical. They don’t care if you use facts and logic against them. What they care about is being laughed at. What they really can’t stand is being mocked. “Humor has long been one of the most effective weapons of anti-authoritarian politics,” Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a scholar on fascism, noted last year after Democrats started calling Republicans “weird”.

You can see how thin-skinned Maga is by the ridiculous amount of traction that AOC’s throwaway joke has had. Mediaite has reported that three primetime Fox News hosts factchecked Miller’s height: Watters, Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity. Ingraham even had Miller on her show and played the clip to him while he squirmed in discomfort. “What a train wreck, what a train wreck … that lady is a walking nightmare,” Miller replied. He also clarified that he is 5’10”. A very big boy.

Steven Cheung, who is White House director of communications, also responded to Ocasio-Cortez’s comments with a post on his official Twitter account saying: “Sounds like @AOC is often used to the shorter things in life.” He added a pinching hand emoji, which is sometimes used to suggest a small penis.

The Trump administration should not be underestimated by any means. They are organized, they are ruthless, and they are proving extremely effective at implementing their agenda. But while we shouldn’t underestimate Trumpers, it’s helpful to remember that they’re not invincible. AOC is right: we should laugh at them. It’s either laugh or cry.

French appeals court increases sentence of Gisèle Pelicot rapist

Husamettin Dogan contested his first conviction, telling the court Pelicot’s husband had invited him over so it was OK. The court found otherwise this week, increasing Dogan’s prison sentence to 10 years. Pelicot’s lawyer had told the court: “[C]onsent is personal, not delegated. Consent is obtained directly and not by proxy from a husband.”

Women may carry a higher genetic risk of depression

New research published in Nature Communications has found 16 genetic variants linked to depression in women, compared with eight in men.

Latvia may withdraw from international domestic violence treaty

Women’s rights activists protested outside the Latvian parliament this week following a decision by lawmakers last month to start a process that could lead to withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, which aims to standardize support for women who are victims of violence and to promote gender equality.

Almost 55,000 preschool children in Gaza are acutely malnourished

That’s according to a new study published in the Lancet, which shows a clear link between Israel’s aid blockade and malnutrition. Even if a ceasefire holds and adequate food is allowed into the strip, these kids will probably have serious poor long-term outcomes from being starved in their critical years. It is hard to defend deliberately starving babies – which is why Israel is spending hundreds of millions on propaganda efforts including, according to Drop Site News, $45m on a Google advertising campaign promoting Israeli government talking points.

UK universities offered to spy on students on behalf of weapons companies

According to emails obtained by the Guardian and Liberty Investigates, a number of UK universities reassured arms companies worried about campus protests that they would monitor students’ social media accounts. Per the Guardian, one university “appeared to agree to a request from Raytheon UK, the British wing of a major US defence contractor, to ‘monitor university chat groups’ before a campus visit”.

The week in pawtriarchy

Francine is a calico cat who lives at a Lowe’s home improvement store in Virginia. Or she did until she decided to jump on a truck and go on an out-of-state adventure. CCTV was scrutinized and thermal drones brought in to find Francine. She is now back in Virginia, delighting customers with her a-mew-sing antics. Cat-astrophe averted.

• Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist