Donald Trump addressed the Boy Scouts of America National Scout Jamboree this week, and in the absence of any impulse control, the president treated the children’s gathering like a campaign rally in support of himself.
As we discussed the other day, Trump’s speech included bitter criticism of journalists, pollsters, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and the Affordable Care Act. He used his platform to, among other things, celebrate the 2016 electoral-college map, and threaten to fire his HHS secretary if the Republican health care plan didn’t pass Congress.
At one point, Trump even told a long, meandering story about a cocktail party he attended on a yacht with a bunch of “hot” people.
Today, the Boy Scouts organization expressed public regret for the way the president conducted himself at this week’s event.
The head of the Boy Scouts apologized Thursday for President Donald Trump’s remarks this week at a gathering of thousands of scouts, saying “political rhetoric” should never have been inserted into the event.
In a letter posted online, Chief Scout Executive for the Boy Scouts of America Michael Surbaugh apologized to those “offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree. That was never our intent.”
Surbaugh, in a statement that emphasized the organization’s non-partisan traditions, added, “We sincerely regret that politics were inserted into the Scouting program.”
This is where American politics has arrived in 2017: tens of thousands of children gathered for an event, and it was the president’s misbehavior that warranted a public apology.
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."