Twitter calls BS on Sean Spicer's conviction that older men "don't need maternity leave"

Impact

The Twitterverse screamed hypocrisy Thursday after White House press secretary Sean Spicer sarcastically said older men have no need for maternity leave coverage.

"If you're an older man, I think you can generally say you're not going to need maternity care," a wry Spicer told reporters at the daily press briefing during a heated back-and-forth over President Donald Trump's troubled American Health Care Act.

Trump's replacement for his predecessor's signature piece of legislation, the Affordable Care Act, has gotten hung up thanks to a revolt from conservative lawmakers who want to ditch more of what the ACA called "essential health benefits," including maternity care.

Spicer's remark came off as hot stuff from a man who speaks for a 70-year-old president who just happens to have an 11-year-old son.

Detractors of Spicer, Trump and the whole health care replacement idea were happy to clap back on Twitter:

"Why would an older man need maternity leave?" one user asked in a tweet featuring a photo of Trump embracing his son, Barron:

Then there was the simple biology argument:

Spicer's remark was also dismissed as just plain sexist.

"Let's just leave out prostate care too, then," one Twitter user remarked. "Majority of Americans don't have one."

Some took pains to note that the conservative House Freedom Caucus, which has resisted Trump's plan on the grounds that some coverage requirements should be eliminated, has no shortage of old men:

Of course, there were those, including conservative firebrand Ann Coulter, who saw it Spicer's way.

The fate of the Republican health bill remained in limbo as of Thursday afternoon.