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Ben Shapiro roasted for saying Jill Biden's 'Dr' title can't help a stroke patient: 'Doesn't take Dr to dial 911'

The political commentator took a dig at the would-be first lady saying one with a doctorate in musicology could not attend to someone suffering a stroke

President-elect Joe Biden is yet to see his inauguration and already the conservative camp has started targeting his spouse Jill Biden, the incoming first lady. The criticism turned strong after a recent editorial in The Wall Street Journal suggested Jill drop the prefix “Dr” from her title. Biden, 69, has a Doctor of Education degree from the University of Delaware which she earned at the age of 55. 

In his op-ed penned for the WSJ last Friday (December 11), essayist and author Joseph Epstein argued that Biden’s usage of doctor before her name "sounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic" in part since she did not hold a medical degree to be called a doctor.

The article was slammed as sexist and unfair by critics but that did not stop Ben Shapiro, another conservative political commentator, from taking a dig at the former second lady.

On Sunday, Shapiro, 36, tweeted: "If you’re at a dinner and somebody introduces himself as 'Dr Smith', you’d be rather upset to learn that he had a doctorate in musicology if you were to suffer a stroke at the table."

In another tweet he said: "Only people with Ph.D.'s in hard sciences and medical doctors should be called 'doctor.' This has been my consistent position for over a decade…”

"I speak as a 'Juris Doctor.' No lawyer should be called doctor. It's idiotic. In law school, one of the students had a doctorate in a liberal art. When the professor addressed the student but forgot the honorific, another student piped up, and said, 'You should say 'Doctor,'" he tweeted yet again.

"The professor quickly replied, 'If I have a heart attack right now, can you do anything about it?' The student demurred. The professor replied, 'Then I'm not calling you doctor.' This is basically my perspective on this asinine issue."

 

Shapiro gets slammed

It did not take too long for the critics to pounce upon Shapiro over his post. Carlos Maza hit out at the former editor-at-large of Breitbart News tweeting: "Truly cannot believe you’ve made a career out of tricking 13 year olds into thinking you make smart arguments."

Another user by the name @kris10iam said: “The word 'doctor' literally comes from the Latin word for teacher. Academia was using the honorific long before medical practitioners.”

Another user by the name @kathryniveyy tweeted: “What the f**k do you think an MD/DO with no equipment, nurses, testing capabilities, and quite possibly multiple glasses of wine in the tank is gonna do? Call 911 just like the PhD would." 

Another reasoned, "And if you were to suffer a stroke at the dinner table, unless Dr Medical Dr Smith is hosting you in a hospital there's not much to be done. Doesn't take a Dr to dial 911." 

Another user, who writes with the handle @RichardClip said: “What POSSIBLE relevance could this have to the issue you're addressing? One's reaction to the absurd hypothetical you posit is UTTERLY IRRELEVANT to the issues of whether 1) it's proper for those w/JB's education to call themselves Dr., or 2) WSJ piece was obscene & misogynist.”

There were also others who came up with hilarious reactions to Shapiro’s tweet. One of them, who tweets with the handle @TweetingYet, said: “Ben, please help.  I'm very confused.  I went on your website.  It's called the Daily Wire but I couldn't see any thin lengths of metal anywhere. My position is that only real thing pieces of wire should be allowed to call themselves wire.”

One user who tweets with the handle @B_L_Mencken, tweeted: “If you're at a dinner and somebody introduced himself as Ben Shapiro you'd be upset to learn you were eating with him, and probably suffer a stroke at the table.”

Shapiro also found some support. Karl Eve, who tweets by the name @kjeve74, said: “I agree. And funny enough, I don’t introduce myself as “Plumber Karl.” Or “Volunteer Firefighter Karl”, and be offended when I’m not referred to as such.”

He was, however, roasted in turn. One told him: "I wasn't aware that Plumber was a title denoting your level of education. I thought it was a profession. My bad."