Trump Tweets Shocking Assault On Brzezinski, Scarborough
On Thursday morning, while MSNBC's "Morning Joe" was on the air, Trump posted a pair of hateful tweets about co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.Tweets below:
...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
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
MSNBC
responded with this statement: "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."
The
president's deputy press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, defended the tweets
by saying Trump was responding to the "outrageous attacks that take
place" on "Morning Joe" and other shows.
Trump refuses
to be "bullied," Sanders said on Fox News. "This is a president
who fights fire with fire."
Trump's
tweets in the 8 a.m. hour on Thursday said that "Morning Joe" is
"poorly rated" (it's not) and that the hosts "speak badly of
me" (that's true). He called both hosts disparaging names.
Trump
claimed that Scarborough and Brzezinski courted him for an interview at
Mar-a-Lago around the New Year's Eve holiday.
"She
was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!" the president wrote.
He actually
said yes, according to accounts of their meeting. Trump, Scarborough and
Brzezinski mingled with guests and had a private chat.
For the
record, photos from Mar-a-Lago do not show any blood or bandages on
Brzezinski's face.
Stunned
commenters on social media noted that Trump targeted both hosts with his barbed
tweets, but only opined on the physical appearance of the woman involved.
Democratic
commentator Maria Cardona, speaking on CNN, said it was part of a pattern of
misogynistic behavior by Trump. "We should not normalize this," she
said, calling it "unacceptable and unpresidential."
Lawmakers
immediately condemned the president's tweets, as well. "Mr. President,
your tweet was beneath the office and represents what is wrong with American
politics, not the greatness of America," Senator Lindsey Graham, a
Republican, tweeted.
But First
Lady Melania Trump spoke up in defence of her husband.
"As the
First Lady has stated publicly in the past, when her husband gets attacked, he
will punch back 10 times harder," her communications director Stephanie
Grisham said in response to reporters' questions.
Melania
Trump has previously said that as First Lady she wants to focus on the problem
of cyberbullying.
Critics say
Trump uses his Twitter account as a powerful megaphone to bully people.
Observers
also expressed a lot of skepticism about Trump's Thursday morning claim that he
doesn't watch "Morning Joe" anymore.
The
president is known to watch all the major morning shows, including the programs
on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC'. He sometimes calls up pro-Trump guests to thank
them for their remarks on the shows.
Trump had a
friendly, jovial relationship with "Morning Joe" during the
presidential campaign, but it turned sour over time.
At one point
he called Brzezinski "very insecure" and threatened to expose her
off-screen relationship with Scarborough.
Brzezinski
and Scarborough were dating at the time, and they are now engaged.
Thursday's
anti-media tweets were astonishing -- and part of a pattern.
On Tuesday
his main target was CNN. Trump revealed in the fact that three CNN journalists
resigned on Monday after their Russia-related story was retracted.
On Wednesday
Trump went after two of the nation's biggest newspapers, The New York Times and
the Washington Post.
He mangled
the facts several times, but his overall message came through loud and clear:
Do not trust the people who are trying to hold my administration accountable.
Brzezinski
responded to Trump Thursday morning with a tweet of her own, mocking him with a
reference to "little hands," a reference to a disparaging idea about
him that has circulated for years.
— Mika Brzezinski (@morningmika) June 29, 2017
Source: CNN
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