En route to Florida for his latest golf weekend in Florida last week, Donald Trump fielded a few questions from reporters on Air Force One, and a journalist took the opportunity to ask about one of the Jeffrey Epstein emails. When she tried to ask a follow-up question, the president snapped, “Quiet. Quiet, piggy.”
The crude insult was patently offensive. It was also part of a broader pattern of Trump’s routine misogyny, especially toward women who cover the White House.
During a recent briefing, the president’s chief spokesperson, press secretary Karoline Leavitt, was offered an opportunity to defend, or at least to explain, Trump’s degrading behavior. She seemed to anticipate the question and presented a prepared answer.
“Look, the president is very frank and honest with everyone in this room,” Leavitt said. “You’ve all seen it yourself. You’ve all experienced it yourselves. And I think it’s one of the many reasons that the American people reelected this president, because of his frankness. And he calls out fake news when he sees it, he gets frustrated with reporters when you lie about him, when you spread fake news about him and his administration.”
She went on to suggest that Trump is “the most transparent president in history,” before concluding, “I think the president being frank and open and honest to your faces rather than hiding behind your backs is frankly a lot more respectful than what you saw in the last administration.”
If this was intended to be persuasive, it failed.
First, the proposition that Trump is “honest” with journalists is hilarious, in addition to being demonstrably ridiculous. Second, whether or not Leavitt appreciates this, there’s a difference between “being frank and open” and “being a bully.” Third, framing the dynamic as the president getting “frustrated with reporters” when they “lie” about him makes it sound as if it’s journalists’ fault that he throws around juvenile, insulting taunts when they publish reports he doesn’t like.
As for “the most transparent president in history,” perhaps Leavitt can get back to us after the public gets access to his tax returns, the Epstein files, the reason for his recent MRI and the video of border czar Tom Homan allegedly accepting a bag full of cash from undercover FBI agents. But perhaps most amazing of all was the press secretary’s suggestion that media professionals should appreciate the president calling a reporter “piggy,” because he’s being “more respectful” than that rascally Joe Biden. Trump originally levied the insult during a press gaggle late last week, suggesting Leavitt had six days to come up with some kind of coherent defense. This, evidently, was the best she could do. All things considered, I suppose that’s understandable. If it were my job to defend the indefensible, I’d probably struggle, too.
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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