Fox News strayed from its usual softball coverage of Donald Trump for a few minutes Thursday when a few of its female contributors ripped into the president’s sexist Twitter rant.
Meghan McCain, host of Fox News’ “Outnumbered,” said she was “grossed out” when she read Trump’s recent tweet saying MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski was “bleeding badly from a face-lift” around New Year’s Eve.
″Women are allowed to get cosmetic surgery if they want,” McCain said during a panel discussion. “I don’t give a hoot if [Brzezinski] has or hasn’t, but bringing it up in a way to sort of try and diminish her and humiliate her publicly makes everyone ... across the country look bad.”
Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, her “Morning Joe” co-host and fiancé, have been vocal critics of Trump’s presidency. Trump focused on both of them in his Tweets Thursday.
McCain, the daughter of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), said she wished Trump would focus his energy on substantive issues instead and warned that his remarks could deter other women from joining the Republican Party.
“I do believe this is beneath the dignity of the White House and the presidency,” McCain said. “I don’t want to be seen as a party that somehow isn’t respectful towards women. And when you send tweets out like that ― I don’t like it.”
The hypocrisy of first lady Melania Trump’s pledge to combat cyberbullying wasn’t lost on McCain either.
“I’m sorry, but we have a first lady whose platform is cyberbullying,” McCain said. “Teenagers commit suicide around the country for being cyberbullied. We have a president who is doing that ... it looks hypocritical that he’s still doing this while it’s our first lady’s platform.”
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) also joined the “Outnumbered” panel Thursday to defend the tweet, claiming Brzezinski and Scarborough should have expected Trump’s vicious comments.
“Donald Trump made it very clear: ’If you hit me, I’m going to hit you back 10 times harder,” Huckabee said. “Anyone who didn’t get that message loud and clear in living color was not paying attention.”
Trish Regan, a host on the Fox Business Network, fired back at Huckabee, saying there are other ways Trump could have responded to the “Morning Joe” hosts’ jabs.
“I’m sorry, you’re the president of the United States ... you have to be able to take the hits and do so in a dignified fashion,” Regan said. “As soon as I saw the word ‘bleeding,’ I flinched. He just took it too far.”
Given the harsh words, maybe Trump will soon tweet that he no longer watches “Outnumbered” either.
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