It’s hard to believe that anyone would defend Donald Trump’s ugly Twitter attack on former Miss Universe Alicia Machado. To most of us, it was a straight case of an unhinged and deranged attack on an innocent woman. But according to one of Trump’s staunchest defenders in Congress, it was just peachy. After all, he was just correcting the record.
On Friday morning, MSNBC’s John Alexander asked Congresswoman Renee Ellmers, the first female lawmaker in the House to endorse Trump, what she thought about Trump’s early-morning tweetstorm. Watch here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48uPGmd0M8k
When Alexander wondered what Trump had to gain by trashing Machado, the North Carolina Republican said–with a straight face–that it was all Hillary Clinton’s fault. After all, Ellmers said, Hillary mentioned Trump’s fat-shaming of Machado to cast the Donald “in a negative light.” Therefore, Ellmers added, Trump felt compelled to address the matter on social media because “he cannot depend upon you, the media, to tell his story.”
Then Ellmers really went off the deep end.
“You know, you heard a lot about fact checking during the debate. Donald Trump is setting the record straight and he’s using social media. That’s the kind of president we need. Someone who goes right to the root of the problem.”
Alexander couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He asked Ellmers if she really believed keeping up this feud with Machado was “good strategy.” Ellmers declared that it absolutely was, since the real issue was the fact that Hillary was “using this former Miss Universe pageant winner as a pawn” in her campaign.
So let’s see if I’m getting this right. When Hillary defends a woman who is being fat-shamed by Trump, she was casting Trump “in a negative light” and using that woman as a “pawn.” Therefore, Trump was well within his rights to trash Machado since he was “setting the record straight.” She later said that she thought Trump should move on–but by then, the horse was halfway down the road.
No, Renee. This was a despicable attack on an innocent woman. Period, full stop. What message does it send for a Congresswoman–and particularly one who has been held out as a voice for women in the GOP–to even think Trump’s behavior was acceptable? Nothing I’d want to hear.
It’s even more outrageous when you consider that Ellmers has a son, Ben. I think it’s only fair to ask–how would Ellmers react if she heard Ben talking to women or girls in this way? I don’t know of any parent–any fit one, anyway–who would find this even remotely acceptable. Maybe we should ask Ellmers if she finds this acceptable–politely, of course. Buzz her on Facebook and on Twitter.
Ellmers is leaving the House at the end of this year after being defeated by Congressman George Holding in the primary–the only case of elephant-on-elephant violence brought on by a court-ordered redistricting. If Ellmers really does condone Trump’s trashing of Machado, she should do us all a favor and resign now. Anyone who finds it acceptable to trash women in this way is not fit to clean the House, let alone serve in it.
