President Donald Trump has proven once again that he cannot resist making sexist, bullying comments on his favorite platform: Twitter.
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Gain company-wide access to our premium content including our monthly webinars, Meeting in a Box, career advice, best practices, and video interviews with top executives.MembershipsAlready a member? Sign in.“In an objective setting, without question, a person with this record would have entered the graveyard of political aspirations, never to return. Yet here we are with that man as president.”
This time, Trump’s target of choice was television host Mika Brzezinski.
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
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.”
And his comments echoed previous remarks he made about Megyn Kelly, another female television personality, 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.
MSNBC released a statement in response to the president’s childish behavior: “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.”
Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine appeared on MSNBC later Thursday and blasted Trump’s posts:
“We’re not going to get along, but we have to treat each other with respect and civility,” she said. “The president’s tweet was completely inappropriate. I think he needs to better appreciate the roles played by the three branches of government and by the media. We’re not going to agree. We’re not always going to get along. But there’s no need for such uncivil language.”
Meanwhile, other lawmakers and television personalities were also not impressed by the president’s latest Twitter rampage, which has become part of a sexist pattern.
“Mr. President, your tweet was beneath the office and represents what is wrong with American politics, not the greatness of America,” tweeted Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.).
“Please just stop. This isn’t normal and it’s beneath the dignity of your office,” posted Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska.
“I do not think making fun of a woman’s looks is acceptable. I get it every day of my life. I think that tweet is cruel – and unpresidential,” tweeted Meghan McCain, daughter of Republican Sen. John McCain and co-host of Fox’s “Outnumbered.”
“What does Ivanka think of this” she added.
Trump’s daughter Ivanka has frequently come under fire for not doing enough to speak out against her father’s irrational behavior and hateful policies. However, it is perhaps First Lady Melania Trump’s response that would be more highly anticipated, as the first lady has previously said she would like to make cyber bullying a focus of hers during her time in the White House.
GOP Rep. Tom Reed (N.Y.) suggested on CNN that the whole thing was simply a way to divert from the health care debacle Senate Republicans are currently scrambling to fix.
“Maybe the intent is to distract from the health care debate,” he said, also saying that he is “obviously concerned about that type of language.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, House Speaker Paul Ryan did not take a strong stance against the tweets, saying at a press conference that it was not “an appropriate comment.”
“What we’re trying to do around here is improve the tone, the civility of the debate. And this obviously doesn’t help do that,” he said.
In addition to Trump’s vicious attack on Brzezinski, his claim about “Morning Joe”‘s ratings is incorrect. As reported by AdWeek, “MSNBC finished May as the No. 1 cable news network in the advertiser-friendly A25-54 demo for weekday prime (Mon-Fri, 8 11 p.m.), per Nielsen” (Nielsen is No. 32 on the Fair360, formerly DiversityInc Top 50).
Further, “Morning Joe also had a notable month, eclipsing 1 million total viewers for the first time in the history of the program. The 1.1 million viewer average for May 2017 represents +89 percent improvement from the program’s total viewer average in May 2016 (583,000).”
For her part, Brzezinski managed to find some humor in the situation, tweeting a photo of a Cheerios box with the slogan “Made For Little Hands.” The photo was uncaptioned but is likely a reference to Trump.
Mika Brzezinski (@morningmika) June 29, 2017
