Another Deplorable Trump Twitter Tirade
Once again, Donald Trump has taken to Twitter to attack women, embarrass himself, and embarrass the nation he purports to represent.
Once again, Donald Trump has taken to Twitter with a tirade that amounts to yet another misogynistic attack on a female media personality:
President Trump assailed the television host Mika Brzezinski on Thursday in unusually personal and vulgar terms, the latest of a string of escalating attacks by the president on the national news media.
Shortly before 9 a.m., as Ms. Brzezinski’s MSNBC show “Morning Joe” was ending, Mr. Trump used Twitter to taunt Ms. Brzezinski and her co-host, Joe Scarborough, referring to them as “low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe” and saying that at one point Ms. Brzezinski was “bleeding badly from a face-lift.”
Mr. Trump has launched broadsides this week against several of the country’s major television networks and newspapers, accusing the news media of creating “fake news” and of unfairly fixating on his campaign’s links to Russian officials. At the White House, the president’s deputy press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said on national television that Americans “deserve something better” from the country’s media.
The graphic nature of the president’s suggestion that Ms. Brzezinski had undergone plastic surgery was met with immediate criticism on social media. Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, wrote on Twitter, “Mr. President, your tweet was beneath the office and represents what is wrong with American politics, not the greatness of America.” And a spokesman for NBC News, Mark Kornblau, wrote on Twitter: “Never imagined a day when I would think to myself, ‘It is beneath my dignity to respond to the President of the United States.’ ”
In a statement Thursday morning, MSNBC said, “It’s a sad day for America when the president spends his time bullying, lying and spewing petty personal attacks instead of doing his job.”4
(…)
Mr. Trump’s comment on Thursday echoed a contentious remark that he made about another female television anchor, Megyn Kelly, during last year’s presidential campaign. “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever,” Mr. Trump said, a remark that was widely seen as a reference to menstruation and drew rebukes from women’s groups.
The president and his team were buoyed this week by a major error at CNN, which retracted a report about one of Mr. Trump’s associates; three journalists who worked on the story resigned. Mr. Trump seized on CNN’s mistake, attacking the news network and other news organizations including The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Here are the Tweets in question:
I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don’t watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2017
…to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year’s Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2017
Trump’s comments were seemingly justified by his Deputy Press Secretary and the Communications Director for the First Lady:
.@SHSanders45: “This is a president who fights fire with fire and certainly will not be allowed to be bullied by liberal media.” pic.twitter.com/pteqMtc3x1
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 29, 2017
Statement from the First Lady’s Communications Director @StephGrisham45 pic.twitter.com/N8Sz0bobL4
— Yashar Ali (@yashar) June 29, 2017
Mika Brezinski, meanwhile, responded:
— Mika Brzezinski (@morningmika) June 29, 2017
And several members of the President’s party in the Senate called out the President for being beneath the dignity of his office:
Please just stop. This isn’t normal and it’s beneath the dignity of your office.
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) June 29, 2017
Mr. President, your tweet was beneath the office and represents what is wrong with American politics, not the greatness of America.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) June 29, 2017
This has to stop – we all have a job – 3 branches of gov’t and media. We don’t have to get along, but we must show respect and civility.
— Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) June 29, 2017
Given his history, which includes attacks on female celebrities and, most notably during the campaign, on Megyn Kelley who co-hosted the first debate in the 2016 Republican Presidential race and made news by calling Trump out on his previous comments about women, this is hardly surprising. That it is so obviously misogynistic is also no surprise in light of the even more graphic comments he was recorded making during a taping of Access Hollywood that were made public during the General Election campaign and, at least for a time, appeared to be something that would doom his campaign. This isn’t even the only misogynistic thing he’s done this week. Earlier this week, while on the phone with the Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Trump called over a female reporter for what is essentially Ireland’s equivalent to the BBC and made comments about her looks while talking to the Irish Head of Government.
So, no, this is not surprising. At the same time, though, that doesn’t mean that what he said here isn’t shocking and deplorable.
It’s true that Scarborough and Brezinski have been particularly critical of Trump over the past couple months, and that this stands in marked contrast to those times over the past two years when Morning Joe seemed to be the then-candidates favorite forum given the number of times he would appear by phone, sometimes seemingly at random. Additionally, they’ve made no secret of the fact that they interacted with Trump on a personal level, both in New York City and at his resort in Florida. So perhaps Trump has taken the recent criticism personally and responded with what can only be called an irrational and childish outburst not befitting the office he purports to hold. That doesn’t make the attack acceptable, though. Furthermore, it is yet another in a long list of things that this President has done or said since January 20th that causes one to call into question his grasp on the realities of the job. As Allahpundit notes, this is supposed to be “Energy Week” at the White House, one meant to showcase Administration policy initiatives dealing with issues such as gas and oil production, alternative energy, and nuclear power. Instead, we’re once again talking about what the President said on Twitter. It’s really quite pathetic.
As Aaron Blake notes, this latest Twitter tirade demonstrates everything wrong with Trump’s Presidency:
It’s difficult to overstate how counterproductive and poorly conceived this was. The GOP health-care effort is hanging by a thread, and it just so happens that three of the five female Republican senators — Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, Maine’s Susan Collins and West Virginia’s Shelley Moore Capito — are considered crucial swing votes. At least one Republican congresswoman, Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.), effectively called Trump out for sexism.
In addition, just a couple weeks back, Trump’s daughter and White House adviser Ivanka Trump complained about the “viciousness” of D.C. politics — comments that were pretty laughable at the time and now seem even more so — and his wife, Melania Trump, is supposed to be running a campaign against cyberbullying. And, as Philip Bump notes, Trump’s itchy Twitter finger has become basically the one thing that Americans of all political stripes agree on; a poll this week showed that seven in 10 Americans think it is “reckless and distracting.”
(…)
Whatever you think of a president or his policies, the fact is that all presidents need help. They need to rely on people who know better about given subjects to offer them advice. They might not always take it, but smart executives are those who are good at delegating and assembling the best groups of advisers to help them with their blind spots and compensate for their flaws. The fact that nobody in the White House has prevailed upon Trump to cut this out pretty much says it all when it comes to whether he’s both getting and accepting good advice.
Twitter is also a regular reminder of what has long been Americans’ least-favorite quality in Trump: his temperament. A Quinnipiac University poll this month found that just 29 percent of Americans describe Trump as “level-headed.” Even one-third of Republicans said the president is not a prudent man.
This trait is also hugely important when it comes to legislating. Trump this month labeled the House GOP health-care bill “mean,” despite having celebrated its passage in a Rose Garden speech. Left twisting in the wind were all those House Republicans who took a very difficult vote to pass it. And you have to believe that GOP senators considering their own very tough votes on the Senate’s version are concerned that Trump will fly off the handle one day and toss them under the bus. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said it well this week of senators considering supporting the health-care bill: “Here’s what I would tell any senator: If you’re counting on the president to have your back, you need to watch it.”
Tweets like those about Brzezinski are a near-perfect encapsulation of how Trump doesn’t listen to anybody, how he is a victim of his own often-very-unhelpful whims, and how he’s prone to alienating even those who are tempted to work with him and defend him.
Chris Cillizza, meanwhile, hits the nail on the head in pointing out what’s wrong about all this:
There’s a natural human tendency when faced with a series of behaviors considered outrageous or unacceptable to begin to slough them off. To normalize them. That’s just Trump being Trump! He says stuff!
But, this is the President of the United States we are talking about. Someone who, whether he likes it or not, is a role model. Someone who has a profound influence on how not only we adults treat each other but how our children view the acceptable bounds of how to act toward one another.
(…)
Trump is, without doubt, the subject of lots and lots of rhetorical attacks — some of them personal — every single day. But, his problem is that he is incapable of differentiating between disagreements about policy or even tone and genuine attacks on him personally.
Saying that his health care bill is bad policy that could endanger peoples’ health who might lose their insurance is a policy disagreement. Saying that calling the House health care bill “mean” is a bad strategic move is a political disagreement. Neither are
personal.Trump is also seemingly incapable of grasping the fact that as President of the United States, he needs to hold himself to a higher standard of conduct. Because of the power and prominence of his office, his words and action matter more than if he was simply a private citizen. He can’t simply pop off because his words have ramifications — whether that’s about foreign policy or face-lifts.
The White House spin here — he punches back when punched — is not even close to good enough.
Look. This is bullying, plain and simple. And, it’s bullying by a powerful man against a woman because of her looks. He also attacked her intelligence and her sanity.
Condemning Trump for this should not be a political decision. It should be a moral one. We don’t want to live in a society where a powerful man (or any man!) can use his social media following to intimidate or bully a woman. Or anybody. Is it acceptable to bully a reporter with a disability just because the reporter is a man? That’s something we should all be able to agree is not a good thing. And is the sort of thing we need to stand up against because we don’t want our kids growing up in a world in which that sort of thing becomes even marginally acceptable behavior.
The fact that Trump’s defenders are, well, defending this latest nonsense is hardly surprising. They’ve stood by him through so much other nonsense that it wouldn’t make sense for them to abandon him now. As I put it on one occasion just before the primaries began in 2016, Donald Trump could perform an abortion on a woman dressed like the Virgin Mary in a church on Christmas Eve and these people would cheer him on and attack his critics. Their support for Trump comes with the kind of single-mindedness one sees in members of a cult and it’s unlikely to be shaken by the fact that he’s spending his time as President of the United States obsessing over media criticism and attacking women. At the same time, though, these people don’t represent all of the people who voted for Trump last November. That group also included otherwise reasonable Republicans who remained loyal to their party. At what point are they going to recognize the mistake they’ve made and the damage that this President is doing to their party and to this country? The nation awaits an answer.
The “dignity” of the office of POTUS is largely the result of decades (centuries?) of tradition. New traditions are always being made, I suppose
I’m Shocked! SHOCKED! I tell you!!!
Where were these Dimwits when Pud revealed himself to be a sexual pervert?
Related – just yesterday Dumb Don was hitting on an Irish journalist in the Oval Office.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/29/trump-sleazy-reporter-awkward-laugh-felt-all-too-familiar
Anyone who voted for this man has serious mental health issues. Anyone that still supports him should be institutionalized, as they likely a danger to themselves.
Is there anyone in the world with a more pathetic job than Sarah Sanders?
Where’s our good friend @MBunge to solemnly warn us that we shouldn’t be bothered by this, and our revulsion is just elitism?
I’ve noticed that if the individual involved is female, young, and pretty, Trump’s insults involve mentioning blood. If the individual is female and older, Trump insults them about their attractiveness.
The guy seems terrified of menstruating women. Snicker.
(Just wait until he insults Angela Merkel down the pipeline.)
Ana Navarro on CNN let Trump have it. More importantly, she let the rest of Republican have it, calling them out for their lukewarm denunciations and demanding they stop enabling Trump.
Every Republican in Congress just took about five seconds to tweet out a condemnation.
Meanwhile, here’s a tweet from Dave Wiegel:
As deplorable as this is…and it is very deplorable…his policies are far worse for women than his mean tweets.
The media should just do a 72 h total NO-TRUMP boycott. Don’t mention his name, office, anything. By day 2 he’ll have to be sedated.
Funny thing is he doesn’t have the balls to actually say this to Mika’s face.
That is the funny thing about all the dopes who fawn over Trump’s strongman persona. The man is a coward. Textbook example of this when he insulted the Mexican president and kept talking about them paying for his wall. But when they met, Trump didn’t bring up the wall and who was to pay for it all.
The man is a little bitch.
Trump really ought not to be discussing Mika’s alleged facelift in view of the fact that if Melania has another one, her eyes are going to be on the sides of her head.
The old butthead is off his rocker, and his fans applaud. Damnedest thing I’ve ever seen. And I’m afraid I ain’t seen nothing yet.
@CSK: HA!
@Janis Gore:
Over at Lucianne.com, the Trumpkins are referring to Mika as a “ho.” A real class bunch over there–just like their cult leader.
Hey, Melania, weren’t you the one who promised to start a bold campaign against cyberbullying?
@CSK: Melania is still working on a “post sex-kitten” wardrobe.
@CSK: She was against it before she was for it.
@CSK:
When I was still in TV I worked with Mika, for a just a short bit, in Hartford.
I just want to say there probably isn’t a nicer on-air person in the industry.
@Janis Gore:
She should work harder.
@Franklin:
She probably doesn’t even know she’s supposed to be against cyberbullying. I assume it was the only signature issue her desperate staff could think of at the last minute.
@Daryl’s other brother Darryl:
I believe you.
What a snotwad! Look at these tweets. He dissed Kim Novak’s looks when she was 81:
https://twitter.com/natemcdermott/status/880521880645632000
“With malice toward none….” Abe Lincoln
“We have nothing to fear but fear itself” FDR
“Ask not what your country can do for you…..” JFK
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall”….St Reaganus of Ronaldom
” low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe”…President Mangolini Pussygrabber
This is not knew, we saw the man in action for the entire 2016 campaign season.
Well, 62 million voters voted for this appalling petty and vindictive narcissist knowing well that this is exactly who he is.
@al-Alameda:
They voted for him precisely because he is an appalling, petty, and vindictive narcissist, not to mention an oaf, a boob, a third-rate con man, and a proud ignoramus. That’s what it takes these days to be a real American patriot.
test
But her emails!
@Mister Bluster: Mister Bluster, I have to ask: why do you post a test message so often?
@Janis Gore:
Says the fat old man with a bad combover and dye job. In Trump’s world, it seems only one gender has the right to age.
@Kylopod:
It’s not a bad combover; it’s a dead possum.
@Kylopod:Take a gander at that voluminous ass.
And critics said Michelle had junk in her trunk.
Must say Ms. Novak does look a tad stretched.
@MarkedMan:..why do you post a test message so often?
What’s more telling is what this says about Trump’ supporters — his few remaining supporters.
Trumpaloos have been trying to excuse this, mainly using the “bullying” talking point — as if the most powerful man in the world can be bullied by a few TV personalities. It’s pathetic.
@CSK:
Or maybe it’s only playing dead?
@Kylopod:
You may well be right. It certainly seems lively enough in a high wind.
@michael reynolds: Indeed–this incident just bolsters my post the other day about Trump and Twitter that MB took exception to.
@CSK:
You missed the most salient feature of Trump. He is a dick. And most importantly, he is a dick to the folks that Trumpkins hate.
They voted for him because a prick. It was the deciding factor.
R’s have been programmed to choose the more dickish candidate for more than two decades. Being surprised by their behavior is foolish and ignores recent voting patterns. This ti.e it was for the presidency rather than for a Representative or Senator. They’ve been on this track for awhile and they have been programmed to choose the biggest, pinkish candidate since Gingrich.
@de stijl:
Last sentence “pinkish” should be “prickish”
Autocorrect is being cheeky.
Or autocorrect is actively trying to undercut me. Hrmm?
@James Pearce: “Why don’t Americans know what’s in the health care bill?”
Same reason that they don’t know a lot of things. They don’t care enough about the issue in question to find out. You can’t fix willfully ignorant.
@Janis Gore: You’d think that he should know that you’re supposed to wear shorts that are thick enough so that your tighty whities don’t show through. Sad. Pathetic. Low Energy. Disgusting.
BTW, re: Ms. Novak: I hope I look that good when I’m 81.
@Just ‘nutha ig’nint cracker: That smile disturbs me. Dolly Parton has the same. I call it the “Heath Ledger effect.”
The price of fame.
@Steven L. Taylor: I also found it interesting that he dissed Mika’s brainpower. While heredity is not a sure-fire thing, Mika’s dad was no slouch in the brains department.
Mika and Joe have a piece in the WaPo this morning entitled “The President Is Not Well.” When someone reads it to Trump, he’s going to start foaming at the mouth.
@CSK: Companion piece at Washington Examiner:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/joe-scarborough-trump-trashed-mika-brzezinski-to-20-congressmen-at-white-house-event/article/2627540
I used to believe that Sean Spicer was the worst / most pity-able person in America. Then he ceased to debase himself every day. He needed a break from being a laughing-stock.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the back-up catcher who wants the start. She is more than willing to out Sean Spicer Sean Spicer.
That takes moxie. Incredibly career-killing moxie, but moxie nevertheless. I am stunned at what she is willing to say on camera. Is she aware of what she is doing to herself? Does she and does Spicer understand how toady they appear?
They have prostrated themselves before such an unworthy god.
@Janis Gore:
Oh, this will make him even crazier.
What do you want to bet that Trump once tried to grab Mika by the pussy and she kicked him in the balls? He’s exactly the type to take furious vengeance against any woman who spurned him–as I’m sure most have.
@de stijl :
Spicer is aware. I’m sure he recites mantras to himself in the morning – “Remember, it’s just a job. Better here then on a pole. Gotta pay off those loans!” He avoids mirrors because his reflection stares at him in judgement. He does it anyway for whatever BS reason he can convince himself of at the moment. He will run if when he finally can’t lie to himself anymore.
SHS on the other hand is the epitome of “Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.” She is gleeful in her ignorance and quite militant about promoting it. She has zero qualifications for this job other then being somebody’s relative and she can’t even do that as well as Ivanka or Jared. Honestly, someone who talks the way she does in Communications? Fail. She thinks she’s doing well for herself – that the coming dynasty of Republican morons will have her and hers up at the top. This is the kind of nut that leads the charge in revolutions, thinking she’s part of the inner circle for good but doesn’t see the inevitable purge coming until she’s put up against the wall.
@CSK :
Or worse, she embarrassed him in front of his buddies proving he’s not the Alpha he thinks he is. Men being spurned is one thing, a man spurned and humiliated in front of another guy is a level of psycho that often ends up with the woman dead or in the ER. A male is statistically more likely to seek to injure or ruin the offending female if social disgrace or shame is involved.
Men fear being humiliated by women, women fear being killed by men. The fact that Trump’s angry tirades about women who’ve pissed him off tend to involve mentioning blood is *not* a good sign.
It’s distinctive to see that cluster of behaviors and traits.
It takes major whip to be Press Secretary. You are almost by definition extraordiniarialy gifted at communication even to be in mix to be considered for the job.
And yet, your day-to-day is defending the indefensible.
Trying to state that this crowd was bigger than that crowd on your first day even though it is demonstrably false. With photographic proof.
And that’s your first day.
In what way can that job be acceptable? How do you get out of bed tomorrow? You need to get up at umpty AM because this is a White House gig and you’re going to be working at least 80 hours a week. 80 hours minimum.
And that will be the gig for as long as you can swallow it.
Even if you are a true believer, you will know the unvarnished truth because It’s your responsibility to know. It”s your responsibility to tell people that they did not see what their lying eyes thought they saw.
In a weird way, I’m impressed. I would be in a fetal curl beneath an Urgent Care cozy-cart begging for morphine. No foolin’.
@Mister Bluster:
Well played sir. Well played.
@KM:
Spicer would be better off and sleep sounder as a stripper.
(Who would pay to see Sean Spicer in a sexy-time sitch?)
I guess I shouldn’t judge. Some folks undoubtedly find him yummy. I don’t know them but I’m sure they exist. This is a big world.
@de stijl: Or being berated for comm efforts concerning the firing of Comey. though you were told an hour in advance of the announcement and the president undercut you immediately after.
I’d be on the verge or strangling someone daily.
@KM:
Indeed. If you read the Washington Examiner article linked to above by Janis Gore, it’s clear that Trump is harboring a psychotic rage against Mika. She’s a very attractive woman. If she put him down in the company of others, his desire for vengeance would be limitless.
This is a guy who’s assured us that he’s “slept with the top women in the world.” He’s desperate to preserve the image of a real stud. Good luck with that one.
Worse and worse: Scarborough is now claiming that Trump offered to spike an unflattering about Mika and Joe in the National Enquirer if they promised to stop saying mean things about him.
This is blackmail. Right?
@de stijl: No, she was a “consultant” (freely translated: low profile hanger on) before this, so she’ll be able to return to her career if she goes back to that low profile. There really isn’t too much of a phenomenon of bad publicity if your job is being C- or D-list famous.
@CSK: I heard that she “declined” Trump’s gracious offer to officiate her wedding at the WH. That’s pretty much the same as getting kicked in the balls in Trumpistan, isn’t it?
@Just ‘nutha ig’nint cracker:
I suppose it is. And he’s insensate with rage over this triviality. It just makes me feel good all over knowing that he has access to the nuclear launch codes.
Is anyone else visiting OTB getting bombarded with those spam ads that take over the screen and can’t be dismissed?
@MarkedMan:
No. Adblock Plus works really well for me.
I find Joe and Mika pretty insufferable.
Joe is frankly clueless and has a job he is not intellectually up to. Scarborough always says that he used to a Republican in every segment. Every friggin’ segment.
Mika is a better mind, but always hits the obvious note. She is the Don Lemon of MSNBC’s early morning line-up. Once she’s hit on an original thought, she repeats it until the break in slightly different words.
My lads / lasses at the local are brainier and more insightful and more cogent (some of them anyway, and depending on the time of the night) and better and certainly more interesting political commentary at 7 PM than I would get at 5 AM.
However, both Mija & Joe are miles above the F&F spokesdoofuses – they occasionally have original, unscripted thoughts and opinions.
The buried lead, though, is Joe’s allegation of blackmail. Interesting if there is documentatio
@de stijl:
Scarborough denied making phone calls to Trump and challenged him to produce the phone logs that would indicate if he had. This is sort of a re-run of the Comey tapes.
@CSK:
Still more Comey-like: MSNBC hosts are saying that Scarborough & Brzezinski had contemporaneous discussions regarding this specific arm-twisting by “White House” with several of their associates. ( I wonder if Mika or Joe wrote memos ‘for the file’
Perhaps my recollection is faulty, but I seem to remember Joe and Mika being very favorable to Trump (they certainly gave Trump plenty of air time and on-air call ins) during the early stages of his campaign. Then something happened in late summer 2016 and they became more critical of Trump. I don’t know what it was (the Access Hollywood video ???), but there was a distinct inflection point in their presentation of Trump. FWIW
@Bob@Younsgtown: Maybe they’d been doing it for the yuks and had a “the genie’s out of the bottle, OMG” moment.
Kevin D. Williamson of NRO is too objectivist for me, but this column on Trump is spot on:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/449145/donald-trump-media-mika-brzezinski-tweet
joe is totally wacked out these days- i stopped following his tweets as he’s beyond the realm.
mika is a dumb twat, that’s a given. the questions should be:
did she have a facelift and was she bleeding then? i’m not enjoying dinner/drinks with a bleeding whiner in my business!
@bill: No she wasn’t . There are pictures:
http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/59555277a3630f1d008b6823-1190-625/one-photo-throws-cold-water-on-trumps-claim-that-mika-brzezinski-was-bleeding-at-mar-a-lago-from-a-face-lift.jpg
@bill: Stay classy, bill.
And a nice little tweet in response to Trump’s latest:
https://twitter.com/Roran_Stehl/status/881139193665212416
Clockwork Orange reference.