MacCallum Mocks Napolitano

Martha: “367 Days in a Year” not “364 Days a Year.” Hoisting herself on her own petard, American Morning co-host Martha MacCallum poked fun at DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano today.

This morning, Martha reported that Secretary Napolitano told ABC’s Diane Sawyer in an interview that “we are…working 24/7 364 days a year to keep the American people safe.” Introducing the clip, Martha joked, “Homeland Chief Janet Napolitano may need a new calendar for the new year’s [sic].” Then, after playing the footage, Martha laughed, “[3]64, last time I checked there were 367 days in the year. Right, Bill?”

Not responding to Martha’s patent error, co-anchor Bill Hemmer jested, “We can actually vacation after that?”

Continuing to spoof the Secretary, Martha chuckled, “Which day are they not working is the question.” Then, suddenly, waxing a whit more charitable, Martha added, “I don’t know, you gotta cut her a little slack though in that regard. We’ve all misspoken at times. Right?”

Cutting Martha herself more than a little slack at that ironic moment, Bill ignored Martha’s mistake. Instead, he subtly corrected the Secretary, softly saying, “We’ll add one [day] next time.”

Update: Subsequently, some of Martha’s Twitter followers took her to task for saying that there were “367 days in a year.” In response, she Tweeted, “357 [sic] was a joke. Sarcasm was lost on some.” However, at least, one follower, @solucky was unimpressed: s/he responded, “@marthamaccallum Nice try, but you said 367 days and YOU misspoke and came up with the sarcasm excuse after the fact.”

*America’s Newsroom – 12/21/10 (@ 9:35 a.m. ET)

Tags: ABC, America's Newsroom, Bill Hemmer, Diane Sawyer, FNC, Fox News, Martha MacCallum