With just days remaining before the 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump headlined a deeply offensive campaign event at Madison Square Garden in New York City, described by The New York Times as a “closing carnival of grievances, misogyny and racism.”
A year later, the carnival continues. My MS NOW colleague Clarissa-Jan Lim reported on what happened when a female reporter pressed the president on his Jeffrey Epstein ties. From the report:
During a press gaggle on Air Force One on Friday, the reporter asked the president about one of the emails Epstein wrote about him that Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released last week. When she tried to follow up with a question about potentially incriminating details in the Epstein files, Trump pointed and said, “Quiet. Quiet, Piggy.”
The White House made no effort to deny the accuracy of the quote, which was captured on video, telling MS NOW in a statement that the president’s target deserved the rebuke after engaging in “inappropriate and unprofessional” conduct.
To the extent that reality has any bearing on the coverage, there’s no evidence the reporter in question was acting inappropriately, but even if there were, it couldn’t excuse Trump calling her “piggy.”
Complicating matters, however, is the familiarity of the circumstances. Meidas News’ Ron Filipkowski put together a video montage that highlights examples of Trump insulting, berating, demeaning and attacking female reporters — just over the past few months.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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