President Donald Trump couldn’t resist.
Despite widespread criticism of his sexist and crude tweets about the hosts of Morning Joe yesterday and pleas from fellow Republicans for him to stop tweeting, Trump came back swinging on Friday morning.
Friday’s tweet comes the day after he made widely condemned remarks about Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough’s show on Thursday—including a particularly sexist quote about Brzezinski where he said she was “bleeding badly from a face-lift” while at Mar-a-Lago around New Year’s Eve, echoing similar comments he’s made about women in the past.
Friday’s tweet was less vulgar than Thursdays’.
“Watched low rated @Morning_Joe for first time in long time. FAKE NEWS,” Trump tweeted. “He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show.”
Watched low rated @Morning_Joe for first time in long time. FAKE NEWS. He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 30, 2017
Scarborough fired back at Trump shortly after his tweet.
Yet another lie. I have texts from your top aides and phone records. Also, those records show I haven’t spoken with you in many months. https://t.co/TZWiElo6Gs
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) June 30, 2017
Trump’s tweets appeared around the same time that Brzezinski and Scarborough condemned the president’s remarks in an op-ed for the Washington Post, where they called Trump’s fixation on their show an “unhealthy obsession.”
“We believe it would be better for America and the rest of the world if he would keep his 60-inch-plus flat-screen TV tuned to Fox & Friends,” they wrote, making a not-so-subtle jab at Trump’s affinity for the morning talk show.
Trump’s tweets on Thursday sent Washington into a spiral, with members of the media and lawmakers widely condemning Trump’s tweets.
While there was widespread condemnation of Trump’s tweets, Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders stuck to her talking points all day, calling Trump a “fighter” who pushes back at what he perceives as attacks on news programs.
Sanders continued her defense of Trump during a press briefing on Thursday, saying that Trump maintains the dignity of the presidential office “every day” despite tweeting sexist and crude comments at members of the media.
