Donald Trump hosted a White House event yesterday with governors, which wouldn’t have been especially noteworthy were it not for something unusual that happened.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) noted that the president has suggesting arming school teachers, which prompted Trump to interject, saying he only wants to arm “gun-adept” teachers, at which point “you’re not going have any problems anymore.”
And while it’s tempting to explain how misguided this is, take a look at the Democratic governor’s response, delivered directly to the president:
“If I may respond to that. Let me just suggest, whatever percentage it is — I heard at one time you might have suggested 20 percent — whatever percentage it is, speaking as a grandfather, speaking as the Governor of the state of Washington, I have listened to the people who would be affected by that. I have listened to the biology teachers, and they don’t want to do that, at any percentage. I’ve listened to the first-grade teachers that don’t want to be pistol-packing first-grade teachers. I’ve listened to law enforcement who have said they don’t want to have to train teachers as law enforcement agents, which takes about six months.
“Now, I just think this is a circumstance where we need to listen, that educators should educate, and they should not be foisted upon this responsibility of packing heat in first grade classes.
“Now, I understand you have suggested this. And we suggest things, and sometimes then we listen to people about it, and maybe they don’t look so good a little later. So I just suggest we need a little less tweeting here and a little more listening. And let’s just take that off the table and move forward.”
If you watch the video of the exchange, it’s hard not to notice the awkward body language: the more Inslee tries to set Trump straight, the more the president folds his arms, rocks back and forth, and signals his dissatisfaction.
Which is probably why this moment seemed so striking: we hardly ever see Trump confronted by someone telling him what he doesn’t want to hear.
For example, this president doesn’t host town-hall meetings. He hasn’t held a real, solo press conference in over a year. Trump nearly always limits his interviews with journalists to conservative media outlets. He debated Hillary Clinton a year and a half ago, and nearly had a breakdown in response to criticisms. If White House aides challenge the president — a big “if,” to be sure — it happens behind closed doors. And so it was a welcome change of pace to see Inslee recommend “a little less tweeting here and a little more listening.” I don’t seriously expect the president to take the advice, but that’s not really the point: Trump was challenged in ways we rarely see. Perhaps he’d benefit — perhaps we’d all benefit — if that happened more often.
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." Recommended
