Trump tweets denounced
Republicans, Democrats slam president’s vulgar comments about female TV host
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump personally mocked television host Mika Brzezinski in vulgar terms on Twitter, drawing quick condemnations from leading Republicans as he once again generated a controversy while his White House struggles to get traction on its agenda.
As Brzezinski's MSNBC show “Morning Joe” came to a close about 9 a.m. EDT, Trump insulted Brzezinski and her co-host Joe Scarborough, calling them “low I.Q. Crazy Mika” and “Psycho Joe,” adding that he had at one point seen Brzezinski “bleeding badly from a face-lift.”
The tweets were the latest in a barrage of attacks by Trump and his White House against media organizations, including CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post, which he has accused of publishing false stories critical of his administration.
“CNN — fake,” Trump said during a brief speech Thursday afternoon at the Energy Department.
The remarks come at an especially fraught time for the administration, and Republican congressional leaders moved quickly to repudiate his words.
“Obviously, I don’t see that as an
appropriate comment,” House Speaker Paul Ryan, RWis., said. “What we’re trying to do around here is improve the civility and tone of the debate, and this obviously does not do that.”
Sen. Susan Collins, RMaine, wrote on Twitter: “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.”
Tweeted Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska: “Stop it! The Presidential platform should be used for more than bringing people down.”
The reactions from Collins and Murkowski were particularly notable, as they are two of the centrist lawmakers whose support Senate Republican leaders need to win passage of their embattled health care bill, a top priority for the White House.
The reaction from them and others underscored the sense on Capitol Hill that members of Trump’s party increasingly have little fear of publicly contradicting the president.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders denied that Trump had crossed a line.
“He fights fire with fire,” she told reporters at the White House press briefing. “When he gets attacked, he’s going to hit back.”
Exactly what set off Trump was not known, however, as Trump didn’t say and Sanders talked only in general terms about “attacks.” Scarborough and Brzezinski once had a fairly close relationship with Trump but have become increasingly tough in their comments about him.
Brzezinski took her own jab, tweeting a photograph of the back of a Cheerios cereal box that reads: “Made for Little Hands,” reviving an old jibe that has gotten under Trump’s skin in the past.
Democrats charged that Trump does not respect women and that he demeans the office he holds.
“I’m appalled. This is the president of the United States. You don’t do things like that. You don’t attack women,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said on MSNBC.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi called Trump’s tweets “beneath the dignity of the president of the United States,” saying they were “blatantly sexist.”
Trump’s flare-up came as the administration struggles to win Senate votes for the health care overhaul bill, faces a critical point in the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria and tries to deal with an escalating nuclear threat from North Korea. It also came amid investigations into Russia’s alleged meddling with the election and possible involvement by people close to the president.
Although Trump and his aides often have portrayed his Twitter messages as a way of communicating directly with supporters, recent polling data suggest that the strategy has limited effect.
A nationwide survey released Wednesday by the polling institute at Marist College in New York, for example, found that only about 1 in 5 Americans found Trump’s tweets to be “effective and informative.” Nearly 7 in 10 said they found them “reckless and distracting.”
Even among those who identified themselves as Trump supporters, the share who said they found his tweets “effective and informative” fell just short of a majority, with 48 percent taking that view, while 37 percent said they found the tweets reckless and distracting and 15 percent were unsure.
“The Presidential platform should be used for more than bringing people down.” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska tweeted