On the March 13 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough asked Washington Post reporter Sally Quinn, “Why do wives go out and stand beside their husbands, whether it's -- gosh, we could go through the long list. But they all do it. Why do they do it like Ms. [Silda Wall] Spitzer [wife of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer] did it the other day?” In her response, Quinn asserted, “The only thing I can think of is that women who are married to these powerful men have -- the power that they have is derivative. They get their power from their men and their status and that they don't want to lose that power.” Quinn continued: “I gather that Silda Spitzer didn't want him to step down. And one might ask, would Hillary Clinton, if she had left Bill Clinton, have run for the Senate, have won, would she be running for the president?” Quinn also said that "[w]hen Silda Spitzer was standing there, all I could think about was a Muslim woman wearing a burka, head to toe, a Taliban woman standing behind her man."

As Media Matters for America noted, on the March 11 edition of the CBS Evening News, anchor Katie Couric introduced a report by correspondent Nancy Cordes on “powerful men who cheat and the women who stand stoically by them.” During the report, Cordes asked, “Big-city mayors, members of Congress, presidents, and presidential candidates: Why would they let sex jeopardize a position they worked so hard to win?” and aired a clip of Quinn saying: “I can only think that ambition, their own personal ambition, is part of why they stick by these men, because they are accomplished women in their own right. And so, why would a Hillary Clinton or a Silda stand by her man and allow herself to be humiliated unless there was something in it for her?”

From the March 13 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe:

SCARBOROUGH: You know what I don't understand, Sally? We've been talking about this. Why do wives go out and stand beside their husbands, whether it's -- gosh, we could go through the long list. But they all do it. Why do they do it like Ms. Spitzer did it the other day?

QUINN: You know, I think it's got to stop. I think it is -- sends a terrible message to young women and young men, boys and girls all over the world, all over the country. When Silda Spitzer was standing there, all I could think about was a Muslim woman wearing a burka, head to toe, a Taliban woman standing behind her man. It just -- it seems so retro in a way. The only thing I can think of is that women who are married to these powerful men have -- the power that they have is derivative. They get their power from their men and their status and that they don't want to lose that power. I gather that Silda Spitzer didn't want him to step down. And one might ask, would Hillary Clinton, if she had left Bill Clinton, have run for the Senate, have won, would she be running for the president? I think they know that that power that they -- and the thing that's so sad is that these are -- Silda Spitzer is an incredibly attractive, intelligent, talented woman who could have made it on her own. And what I don't understand is that she allows herself to stand up there and be humiliated in front of the world by her husband. And by being there and being supportive, it's as though she's saying this is acceptable behavior. Wouldn't you just once love to see one of these women just let him go out there on his own --

SCARBOROUGH: Yes I would.

QUINN: -- or get out there with him and then turn around and just smack him across the face and just say, “I'm not having any of this. This is not acceptable.”

SCARBOROUGH: And I don't know these days that it's that helpful to the husband anymore to have the woman silently stand by your man while we're talking about these type of episodes. And it's all theater. It's all showbiz.

QUINN: Well, but --

SCARBOROUGH: Wait, hold on a second. I wanted to ask you, one woman who I thought did it right -- and I'm curious what you would think about this -- David Vitter's wife. She did not stand quietly by. She said, “We've addressed this. Now, my husband's leaving to Washington. Get your damn camera trucks off of my lawn and follow him around. My kids and I are going back to school.” And I saw that, and I thought, “Good for her.”

QUINN: Yeah, I mean that's fine. Or you could do what the Brits do and invite the press in for tea.