Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., made comments caught on a microphone during a Senate vote, in which he called underage pages in the Senate "beautiful girls."
"I thought you were going to say this was one of the most beautiful girls. What about these others?" Wicker said during the Monday vote on passing a short-term spending bill, a clip from the C-SPAN video recording shows.
Wicker’s spokesman Ryan Taylor told The New York Daily News that the comment was "meant as a light-hearted jest."
The spokesman said that Wicker was responding to Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who said one of the pages was from one of the most beautiful parts of the country.
Senate pages are usually high school juniors who spend one semester out of the year as interns in Congress, The New York Daily News reported.
Wicker’s remark came amid sexual harassment issues involving a number of U.S. politicians, which has led to resignations such as that of former Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn.
One Twitter user, Pamela Wallace, responded to Wicker’s remark, saying, "Good to know his mind was on the important work at hand… rating high school girls for hotness," The Independent reported.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.