Pelosi bashes Trump for ‘blatantly sexist’ tweets

President Trump’s twitter attack on “Morning Joe” host Mika Brzezinski was “blatantly sexist,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) charged Thursday.

“It’s so blatantly sexist I don’t even know that there’s any question about it,” Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol. 

“It’s really sad,” she added. “This is the president of the United States. Something’s wrong there.”

Pelosi then suggested that boorish behavior is a proclivity not unique to Trump but is deeply rooted in the Republican Party in general. As evidence, she noted the GOP’s recent embrace of freshman Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-Mont.), who assaulted a reporter the night before his special election in May.

{mosads}“I just don’t know why the Republicans, they can tolerate almost anything: a candidate beating up a reporter and then cheering him on as he arrives in Congress, the tweets of the president of the United States,” she said.  

“They set a low standard for public officials in terms of their demeanor.” 

Trump has a long-running feud with Brzezinski and former GOP Rep. Joe Scarborough (Fla.), the co-hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program. But his Twitter attack on Thursday was particularly personal and graphic, accusing Brzezinski of being unintelligent, unhinged and vain.

”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 to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year’s Eve, and insisted on joining me,” Trump tweeted. 

“She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!” 

The backlash was swift — and bipartisan. 

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Trump’s remarks undermine any effort to “improve the tone and the civility of the debate” in Washington. And some Republican lawmakers joined Pelosi in accusing Trump of overt sexism.

“This is not OK,” Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.) tweeted. “As a female in politics I am often criticized for my looks. We should be working to empower women.”

The White House defended Trump, with spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders saying the tweets were justified because of the “outrageous number of personal attacks” on the president by liberal media “elites.” 

“This is a president who fights fire with fire,” she told Fox News, “and certainly will not be allowed to be bullied by a liberal media and the liberal elites within the media or Hollywood or anywhere else.”

Pelosi, a former Speaker who remains the highest-ranking elected woman in U.S. history, said she was hoping to lose that distinction last November by seeing Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democratic opponent, ascend to the presidency.

“Sad to say I am still the highest-ranking woman. I thought that was all going to be resolved in November,” Pelosi said. 

“Instead we have a person in the White House who not only doesn’t happen to be a woman, but happens to disrespect women.”