Once again, the media’s attention was focused on inflammatory Trump tweets.
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Each week, USA TODAY’s OnPolitics blog takes a look at how media from the left and the right reacted to one of the week’s top political news stories, giving liberals and conservatives a peek into the other’s media bubble.
This week, President Trump managed to unite many liberal and conservatives commentators in outrage with his tweets Thursday morning attacking Morning Joe hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough. In one tweet, Trump bragged of refusing a request from “low I. Q. Crazy Mika” and “Psycho Joe” to spend New Year’s Eve at Mar-a-Lago, adding, “She was bleeding badly from a face-lift.”
“So it’s not surprising the president took some time Thursday morning to unwind the best way he knows how: by taking gratuitous Twitter potshots against people he dislikes, ” Egger wrote. “The tweets come as a gloomy reminder that no mortal is safe from the wrath of Trump’s Twitter thumbs.”
“I mean, this is entirely inappropriate for anyone to tweet, never mind the sitting president of the United States, ” Townhall Managing Web Editor Christine Rousselle wrote . “It’s not funny, it’s rude, and it’s completely unbecoming of the presidency.”
‘Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.’ Abraham Lincoln pic.twitter.com/vkJnlXbnXg
The Huffington Post also tapped into a sentiment expressed by many on social media: “Trump’s latest stunning Twitter diatribe prompted some to recall first lady Melania Trump’s pledge to combat cyberbullying, which she first proposed during her husband’s campaign.”
Slate’s Michelle Goldberg said the tweets revealed Trump’s true, misogynistic nature, which he has managed to hide so far during his presidency. But Trump is feeling a lot of strain Goldberg writes, and when “you’ re under pressure, it can be harder to hide your true self. And Trump’s true self is a pig.”
Not all conservatives were critical of the tweets. Infowars editor Paul Joseph Watson said the reaction to Trump’s tweets was proof that “the mainstream media” can “dish it out, but they can’t take it in.”
There’s more outrage from the left over Trump’s Mika Brzezinski tweet than the attempted massacre of Republicans earlier this month. That’s not a cliché. There genuinely is.
This is the same media that has relentlessly and viciously savaged Trump over his hair, his hands and other aspects of his personal appearance for the best part of the last two years.
Watson also derided what he sees as feminist hypocrisy.
“In this era of relentless, in-your-face feminism, I thought women were supposed to be strong?” Watson wrote. “Are Trump’s critics saying Mika Brzezinski can’ t take an insult & give it back? How sexist!”
Trump objectified Mika Brzezinski! Nah, she did that to herself years ago. pic.twitter.com/TLgCEdd97P
“Each and every morning, liberal Joe Scarborough, he lobs baseless insults at the president, the administration, Republicans, and, by the way, real conservatives in the media, ” Hannity said. Hannity said he believes Scarborough has been “vicious, nasty, one-sided, petulant and arrogant” in his coverage of Trump because he wants to land a job at CNN.
It seems entirely possible Trump’s Thursday tweet storm was precipitated by Hannity’s “mini-monologue” since the president is known to be a regular viewer of the conservative host.
Trump’s tweets were controversial enough to grab the country’s attention away from the Republican effort to repeal and replace Obamacare. That prompted the New Republic ‘s Sarah Jones to wonder: “Is this a deliberate distraction from the fact that people are getting pulled from their wheelchairs and arrested for protesting his party’s health care plan?”
“The most obvious answer is that Trump is catastrophically stupid, and obsessed with himself, and doesn’ t actually care about health care, ” Jones concluded. “It’s not a ploy as much as it’s a tic.”
Conservative commentators likely felt Trump’s tweets were stealing attention from what t hey see as mounting evidence of a media conspiracy against Trump. First, there was the story CNN had to retract. Then came a study from the Media Research Center showing the amount of network news airtime devoted to Russia coverage. And then an undercover video from James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas landed that purports to show a CNN producer saying the cable news network covers Russia because of ratings.
Mother Jones ‘ Dan Friedman took to task conservatives who argued that even if Trump colluded with Russia, he didn’t commit a crime.
Ten lawyers queried, including academics, former prosecutors, and defense attorneys familiar with federal election and hacking laws, cite more than a dozen federal statutes that prosecutors could use to charge someone who collaborated with Russian intelligence to influence the 2016 election.
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