Trump's tweets were so sexist even Fox News was appalled

Allies were few and far between following his latest awful tweets.
 By 
Margaret Sullivan
 on 

After President Trump's awful Twitter tirade against Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski in the wee hours of Thursday morning, one surprising outlet stepped forward to condemn his actions -- Fox News.

Several presenters on the channel spoke out against the sexist tweets during the course of the day and the network even focussed on the issue instead of the daily White House press briefing.

While CNN and MSNBC (where Morning Joe airs) were broadcasting live footage of the briefing, Fox cut away to an interview with Republican National Committee Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel. And boy, did they let her have it.

"Listen," Fox News anchor Julie Banderas said to McDaniel in response to Trump's tweets, "You don't need to stoop to the level, obviously. I don't care who you are."

"You don't stoop to the level of that. I mean that's like me scolding my four-year-old for using a bad word and then me repeating it. That's just not how you run a country or you parent a four-year-old."

"That's just not how you run a country or you parent a four-year-old."

McDaniel tried to justify the president's tweets by listing some of the insults that had been raised against him by Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough on Morning Joe, but Banderas was not having it. She even brought up a surprising example of how a politician should handle criticism -- former President Barack Obama.

"People used to call President Obama stupid," Banderas said. "People used to call him a Muslim. People used to call him under-qualified, a sellout to America, a hater of Israel. I mean they called him every name in the book, but you didn't see him lash out."

Yep, Fox News just used President Obama as a positive example for Trump to follow.

If your head wasn't spinning already, that was not the only tongue lashing Trump received from Fox Thursday. Meghan McCain, daughter of Senator John McCain and host of Fox News' Outnumbered said during a panel discussion that she was "grossed out" by Trump's tweets.

"Women are entitled to get cosmetic surgery if they want," McCain said in reference to one of the president's tweets, which claimed Brzezinksi was "bleeding badly" from a facelift. "I don't give a hoot if she 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."

McCain wasn't finished. She went on to point out the hypocrisy of first lady Melania Trump's platform against cyberbullying, and said that the remarks made by Trump were beneath the dignity of the White House.

"I don't want to be seen as a party that somehow isn't respectful towards women," McCain said. "And when you send tweets out like that -- I don't like it."

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who was also on the panel, predictably defended Trump, saying Brzezinksi and Scarborough should have expected the (childish) insults. Trish Regan, host on the Fox Business Network, did not accept that.

"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."

We're not sure if much about Trump's presidency could be considered "dignified," but the shift on Fox News, at least for today, was promising.

Mashable Image
Margaret Sullivan

Maggie was a Real Time News Intern in Mashable's Los Angeles office. She is originally from the suburbs of Chicago, and she is currently studying journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She previously freelanced for the Chicago Tribune, and enjoys petting dogs and drawing pictures in her spare time.

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