Eyeing photos of the two engaged in conversation at the ancient cathedral’s reopening, Kudlow on Monday said: “Take a careful look at that. That wasn’t nice conversation, that was outright flirtation. That was almost heavy-duty petting!”
Kudlow, who hosts a show on Fox Business and previously served as an economic adviser for the president-elect, got a rise out of Fox News’ “Outnumbered” panelists Harris Faulkner and Kayleigh McEnany, who called it a “hot take, no pun intended.”
But Kudlow’s attempt to generate yuks gave way to more ick instead.
Faulkner said the first lady’s warm expressions in photos with Trump were proof that she “gravitates to power.”
“I’m just going to say it because it’s the truth!” Faulkner claimed. “So she’s gravitating toward power, and the shiniest object in the room at that moment, the one with the really good lighting … is Donald Trump. So she goes over and she kind of soaks that lighting up.”
Kudlow used that as a cue to clean up his previous thought.
“This fondness for power is what I metaphorically called heavy-duty petting!” he remarked.
“Oh! It was a metaphor!” Faulkner said.
The panelists also jokingly surmised that Jill Biden’s red outfits signified that she voted for the president-elect over Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. Kudlow cracked that even Joe Biden voted for Trump, who used one of his photos with Jill Biden in the church to hawk his cologne with the tagline: “A Fragrance Your Enemies Can’t Resist.”