Republican lawmakers on Thursday swiftly rebuked President Donald Trump’s cruel attack on the hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” saying the insults were “beneath the dignity” of the office of the president.
In a two-part tweet, Trump attacked “Morning Joe” co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, accusing Brzezinski of “bleeding badly from a face-lift” while she and Scarborough were visiting Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in December.
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
The messages, some of the most graphic and personal since Trump became president, were condemned by Republicans who are struggling to push forward Trump’s legislative agenda while the White House is consumed by the Russia probes and self-inflicted dramas.
Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), and Ben Sasse (Neb.) joined a loud chorus on social media denouncing the president’s latest tweets.
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.
— Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) June 29, 2017
Mr. President, your tweet was beneath the office and represents what is wrong with American politics, not the greatness of America.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) June 29, 2017
Please just stop. This isn't normal and it's beneath the dignity of your office.
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) June 29, 2017
The tweets were the latest in a series of attacks launched by Trump this week on several mainstream media outlets, including CNN, ABC, The New York Times and The Washington Post.
But the graphic claim that Brzezinski had undergone plastic surgery immediately prompted fierce criticism because of the personal and crude nature of the attack.
A spokesman for NBC News responded to Trump’s attack shortly afterwards, writing on Twitter that “‘it is beneath my dignity to respond to the President of the United States.'”
Brzezinski hit back at the president for “lying … and destroying the country.”
“Nothing makes a man feel better than making a fake cover of a magazine about himself, lying every day and destroying the country,” Brzezinski said in reference to a Washington Post report that alleges a fabricated Time magazine cover photo featuring Trump is hanging in at least five of his golf clubs.
Trump also attacked The Washington Post on Wednesday, complaining that the “fake news Amazon Guardian” newspaper didn’t pay “Internet taxes.”
