President Donald Trump's Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, spoke out on X in response to the abrupt news that Maria Bartiromo was departing Fox News — and one particular line in his post drew intense scrutiny.
"I just saw that @MariaBartiromo has left @FoxBusiness@FoxNews & so sad to hear," wrote Huckabee, a Southern Baptist pastor who previously served as governor of Arkansas. "The smartest, hardest-working journalist & absolutely a class act. It was an honor to work with him/ her and later to be guest on a show always worth watching."
The peculiar use of "him/her" had many people piling on with mockery. Many people guessed that Huckabee, or some staffer working for him, accidentally sent out a form letter post without properly customizing it; others, however, joked that Huckabee possibly had some LGBTQ-related dirt on Bartiromo, or at least ridiculed the mistake coming from an administration that is famously dogmatic about gender pronouns.
"I'm always saying 'It was an honor to work with him/ her,'" wrote Bloomberg Washington and White House correspondent Josh Wingrove.
"To work with who now?" wrote Andrew Egger of The Bulwark.
"'It was an honor to work with him/ her,'" echoed commentator Damin Toell, who wondered what "kinda Maria Bartiromo news is about to drop??"
"Her pronouns are she/they, actually," wrote Billy Binion of the libertarian site Reason.
Huckabee himself seemed to notice the jokes about his bizarre statement, and stepped in to clarify.
"Thanks for catching the 'him/her' line!" he wrote. "I was typing while riding in vehicle on bumpy street--but have NO idea how that came out! Aside from my clumsy typo mistake, I still love @MariaBartiromo & will always have total respect for HER. Just HER, no "him" involved!"