Don Jr. Made a #MeToo Joke Last Night to Warm Up the Crowd for His Dad

Donald Trump Jr. warmed up the crowd at a political rally in North Carolina Monday night with a MeToo joke that also criticized the media.

Trump Jr. kissed his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle — a former Fox commentator turned senior adviser on President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign — as he took the stage in Fayetteville, and then quipped about how the peck was consensual.

“Kimberly, do you think the media is going to sue me for harassment since i just gave you a little kiss?” he said. “Notice there’s no objection, OK. It’s on the record. I will not be getting #MeToo’d this evening. Alright? Kimberly may #MeToo me later, but that’s a different story.”

The riff from Trump Jr. was met with light laughter from the crowd.

The joke wasn’t the first of its kind from the president’s son. Back in March, he said “hashtag me too” on a panel at Liberty University when Jerry Falwell said his sons grew up with guns.

Joking about the #MeToo movement is a seemingly a curious choice for the Trump campaign, considering the president has been accused of sexual misconduct by at least 17 women.

And at least one Republican woman suggested MeToo needs to be taken seriously. “[Women] want their voices heard, and the #MeToo movement has empowered that,” Sarah Chamberlain, president of Republican Main Street Partnership, told the Washington Post after Trump Jr. made the joke on Monday. “We are 52 percent of this population and it's resonating into politics.”

Trump Jr. and his father were in Fayetteville ostensibly to support Dan Bishop, a Republican on the ballot for a House seat in a special election on Tuesday. It’s expected to be a tight race between Bishop and Democrat Dan McCready, and will be closely watched as a bellwether for Republicans in 2020.

But as with many Trump rallies, the message strayed from time to time. For instance: The president joked about a supporter fainting at the event, Trump Jr. warned the crowd not to say there are only two genders, and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) took a jab at former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

Cover: Donald Trump Jr. speaks at a rally before his father, President Donald Trump, arrives in Fayetteville, N.C., Monday, Sept. 9, 2019. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)