President Donald Trump brought his disregard for women right back to the forefront with two simple words to a female reporter on Monday: “Be quiet.”
The short but powerful response speaks volumes when it comes to Trump’s view on women.
Catherine Lucey, an Associated Press reporter, asked the president during a photo op with some of the White House’s interns, “Mr. President, should Jeff Sessions resign”
Trump rolled his eyes but did not respond.
“Do you have a message on health care” Lucey then asked.
“Be quiet,” was Trump’s message.
As the Associated Press reported, “Reporters typically call out questions to the president when covering photo ops or bill signings. The president frequently answers.”
But this is not Trump’s first attack on a female journalist. Just about a year ago Trump also told a female reporter to “Be quiet.” Then, the target was NBC News correspondent Katy Tur.
According to Politico:
“Tur asked Trump whether he has ‘any qualms about asking a foreign government … to hack into a system of anybody’s in this country’ after Trump said he hoped Russia would find more emails from Hillary Clinton or the DNC.
‘Hey, you know what gives me more pause, that a person in our government, crooked Hillary Clinton here’s what gives me more pause,’ Trump said, as Tur tried to ask follow-ups. ‘Be quiet, I know you want to, you know, save her.'”
The president cannot stop his sexist Twitter habit, describing television host Mika Brzezinski as “low I.Q. Crazy Mika” and “bleeding badly from a face-lift.”
In a more recent example of vile sexism, the president attacked MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski last month. Trump described Brzezinski on Twitter as “low I.Q. Crazy Mika” and “bleeding badly from a face-lift.”
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
According to deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump had to respond to the “outrageous attacks” against him because he refused to be “bullied.”
Incidentally, Trump’s tweets came as a response to Brzezinski and her fianc, Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” criticizing the president’s unprofessional Twitter habit.
Deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Trump had to respond to the “outrageous attacks” against him because he refused to be “bullied.”
But Trump has proven before he doesn’t need to be provoked to attack women. He has previously called Brzezinski “crazy,” “very insecure” and “very dumb.”
Trump also made Megyn Kelly a frequent victim of his attacks. Kelly previously worked for Fox News and was the moderator of the Republican presidential debates when Trump was still a candidate. Kelly is currently an anchor at NBC News.
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Last January Trump took to Twitter to call Kelly a “bimbo” and “lightweight reporter.”
I refuse to call Megyn Kelly a bimbo, because that would not be politically correct. Instead I will only call her a lightweight reporter!
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 27, 2016
Just one day later he retweeted one of his supporters who was criticizing a recent magazine shoot Kelly participated in. The tweet includes a picture of the shoot with the caption “Criticizes Trump for objectifying women. Poses like this in GQ magazine.” The text in the tweet reads, “And this is the bimbo that’s asking presidential questions”
And his comments echoed previous remarks he made about Kelly, when he said, “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.” His comment was widely interpreted as a reference to menstruation.
In addition to his disrespect toward female journalists, Trump has had a sour relationship with the media in general. In February he sent out several tweets calling publications including CNN, the New York Times, ABC and others “fake news.”
FAKE NEWS media knowingly doesn’t tell the truth. A great danger to our country. The failing @nytimes has become a joke. Likewise @CNN. Sad!
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 25, 2017
The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017
He also barred several news outlets from attending a press briefing that month, including CNN, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Politico, BuzzFeed, The Hill and others. More conservative outlets, including Breitbart and the Washington Times, were still permitted entry.
Despite his comments and actions indicating the very opposite, Trump has claimed he respects women an insistence that drew laughter from the crowd of an October 2016 presidential debate, at which time Trump insisted, “Nobody has more respect for women that I do. Nobody.”
Trump’s behavior toward women, suggesting that their voices do not matter, echoes that of Republicans who recently silenced Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris (Calif.) twice.
California Sen. Kamala Harris was blatantly interrupted during her questioning of Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Harris, the only Black woman in the U.S. Senate, was interrupted and admonished by Republican colleagues during her questioning of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and told to let him finish his answers. Then, during a Senate intelligence committee hearing just a week later, Harris was again blatantly interrupted by her Republican male colleagues.
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Achieving Gender Balance in Senior Leadership
Monsanto’s Melissa Harper: How I Got Management to Notice Me
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Sodexo Top Leader’s Career Flourished After Being Tapped to Head Up Women’s Diversity Effort
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EY’s Karyn Twaronite: Push for Advancement
ADP’s Debbie Dyson: From Customer Service Rep to Reporting to the CEO
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