US President Donald Trump assailed a woman TV news host in highly personal terms on Thursday, calling her "crazy" and alleging she had been bleeding at one point from a facelift, in a Twitter attack that drew strong criticism, including from fellow Republicans.
Trump, who often decries what he calls "fake news" in the American media and who this week attacked CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post, took fierce aim on Thursday at the hosts of the MSNBC program "Morning Joe" - Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.
The Republican President called Brzezinski, a journalist and daughter of former White House national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, “low IQ Crazy Mika" and said she was "bleeding badly from a face-lift" when she visited one of his properties around New Year's Eve.
He referred to former Republican US congressman Scarborough as “Psycho Joe”.
Trump is known for his prolific Twitter habit, which includes mocking attacks on critics and rivals, but his tweets on Thursday drew a particularly strong response.
This is what MSNBC’s communications office said on Twitter:
The "Morning Joe" program aired live telephone interviews with Trump during the 2016 Presidential race, but its hosts have turned increasingly critical of him since he took office in January.
On Thursday morning’s show, Brzezinski excoriated the Trump administration and said its officials should not act “lobotomized” because they are so scared of the President.
Comcast Corp owns NBCUniversal, MSNBC's parent company.
Republican Lawmakers Rebuke Trump
Republican lawmakers and others sharply rebuked Trump.
The tweets "represents what is wrong with American politics, not the greatness of America," said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, while another Republican Senator, Ben Sasse, called Trump's remarks "beneath the dignity of your office."
"I don't see that as an appropriate comment," Republican House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said of Trump's tweets.
The remarks were an escalation of Trump's long-standing criticism, as a candidate and then as President, of the news media, which he once called an "enemy of the American people."
Trump has been critical before of the "Morning Joe" hosts, but Thursday's attack was especially harsh.
Scarborough and Brzezinksi are engaged to be married. During the January meeting at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Trump offered to host their wedding and even officiate it, the two said in an interview in Vanity Fair published in May.
Democrats condemned Trump's tweets as an example of what they view as his sexism.
Trump’s bullying tweets are an attack on women everywhere.Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Adrienne Watson
The tweets created a new distraction as Republican senators tried to bridge differences within the party and agree on major healthcare legislation.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders defended his tweets.
I don’t think that the President has ever been someone who gets attacked and doesn’t push back. People on that show have personally attacked him many times. This is a President who fights fire with fire and certainly will not be allowed to be bullied by liberal media and the liberal elites within the media, or Hollywood or anywhere else.White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders to Fox News Channel
(This article has been edited for length)
(This admission season, The Quint got experts from CollegeDekho.com on board to answer all your college-related queries. Send us your questions at eduqueries@thequint.com)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)