Open Mic Night (Uruguay-Argentina Edition)
Via the BBC: Argentina protests after Kirchner is called ‘an old hag’
Argentina has made an official protest after the Uruguayan president was caught on microphone apparently referring to President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner as an "old hag".
President Jose Mujica was overheard saying: "This old hag is even worse than the cross-eyed man."
[…]
It has claimed that he was referring to Ms Fernandez and her late husband, who she succeeded as president.
Ms Fernandez’s husband, Nestor Kirchner, had a lazy eye. He died suddenly of a heart attack in 2010.
President Mujica has denied that he had been talking about the Kirchners, but has so far failed to explain who else he was referring to.
[…]
He made the controversial comments at the start of a news conference while speaking quietly with another official.
El Observador newspaper posted the audio on its website, claiming that the president did not realise that the microphones were on.
First: always beware the mic.
Second: if you are going to say you were talking about someone else, have a someone else in mind.
Meanwhile, the Argentine government has filed a formal protest:
Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman summoned the Uruguayan ambassador in Buenos Aires, Guillermo Pomi, to protest about the comments.
The linked piece has a nice list of “other famous microphone gaffes.”
The woman’s only sixty. Not a spring chicken but hardly a hag. The remark is both unchivalrous and inaccurate.