Crude shots par for course
Lessons in civility in the Trump era
Do as he says, not as he does.
As he is wont to do, President Trump fired up his Twitter account Monday and unleashed a pointed threat, this time toward Rep. Maxine Waters: “Be careful what you wish for Max!”
The President had taken issue with Waters’ suggestion that Americans “harass (the Trump administration) until they decide that they’re going to tell the President, ‘No, I can’t hang with you,’” which she said in response to press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders getting the boot from a Virginia restaurant for her association with the White House.
If the idea of Trump spouting messages of peace and harping on someone for not encouraging politeness seems hypocritical, well, that’s because it is. Take a look at some of the finest examples below.
• June 16, 2015: In a speech announcing his candidacy in New York, Trump says, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best… They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
• July 18, 2015: Trump insults Arizona senator and former prisoner of war John McCain at a campaign event in Iowa, saying, “He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
• Aug. 10, 2015: Trump hurls insults on Twitter at Sen. Rand Paul. “Truly weird Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky reminds me of a spoiled brat without a properly functioning brain. He was terrible at DEBATE!” .
• Nov. 24, 2015: Trump mocks Serge Kovaleski, a reporter with arthrogryposis, a congenital joint condition, by contorting his arms at a rally in South Carolina.
• March 12, 2016: Trump tells the crowd, while throwing fake punches, that he’d “beat the crap out of” a protester who tried to rush the stage at a campaign rally in Kansas City.
• Aug. 9, 2016: “If (Clinton) gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks,” Trump tells a crowd in Wilmington, N.C. “Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know.” .
• Sept. 27, 2016: Trump says on Fox News that former Miss Universe Alicia Machado “gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem.”
• Oct. 8, 2016: Old tapes of Trump talking to Billy Bush of “Access Hollywood” leak. The tapes include vulgar insults to TV personality Nancy O’Dell, who Trump claimed had “big phony tits,” and detailed descriptions of the aggressive ways in which he chased women. “I’m automatically attracted to beautiful – I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just a kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything… Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”
• Oct. 20, 2016: Trump says Hillary Clinton is “such a nasty woman” during a presidential debate.
• June 29, 2017: Trump unleashes a nasty Twitter rant aimed at “Morning Joe” cohost Mika Brzezinski, branding her “low I.Q. Crazy Mika” and claiming she had been “bleeding badly from a facelift” when they met at Mar-a-Lago around New Year’s Eve.
• July 28, 2017: Trump encourages police in Long Island to be tougher on the folks they’re putting under arrest. “When you see these towns, and you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon… I said, ‘Please don’t be too nice,” he said. Sarah Huckabee Sanders later dismissed the comments as a joke.
• Sept. 22, 2017: Trump tells a group of supporters at a campaign rally in Huntsville, Ala., “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when someone disrespects our flag to say, ‘Get that son of a b---h off the field right now. Out. He’s fired. He’s fired,” amid peaceful protests in the NFL.
• Jan. 11, 2018: “Why are we having all these people from s--thole countries come here?” Trump says in a White House meeting with lawmakers.
• May 2018: Trump calls illegal immigrants “animals” during a meeting with California municipal leaders.
• June 2018: Trump reportedly tosses German Chancellor Angela Merkel a pair of Starburst candies at the G-7 summit in Canada and says, “Here, Angela. Don’t say I never gave you anything.”