On Sunday morning, Donald Trump had what was undoubtedly one of his most deplorable and unhinged Twitter moments yet. He got the bright idea to retweet a GIF from one of his diehard followers showing him knocking Hillary Clinton to the floor of her plane with a tee shot from one of his golf courses.
As of Monday night, that outrageous tweet is still available on Trump’s Twitter feed. See for yourself.
Almost as disturbing as the fact this tweet is still live is that over 76,400 people like this. Which means that 76,400 people are perfectly fine with implicitly condoning violence against a woman.
You would have thought that this would have been too much for even the most diehard pro-Trump lawmakers. But at least one Republican congressman doesn’t think this is really a big deal. He actually said–with a straight face–that Trump wasn’t really attacking Hillary.
On Monday morning’s edition of CNN’s “New Day,” host Alisyn Camerota spoke with Chris Collins, who represents New York’s 27th District–most of the wealthier suburbs of Buffalo and Rochester. The conversation turned to Trump’s Sunday morning tweetstorm–which included that attack on Hillary. Watch here.
After describing the retweeted GIF to Collins, Camerota asked him if he thought the retweet was funny. Collins claimed he hadn’t seen it. However, Camerota reminded Collins that it was playing on his screen. She then described the contents of the GIF–an obvious attempt to pin Collins down and ensure that he would be forced on the record.
“It’s a retweet from kind of a gross account of a guy with a vulgar name, and it shows what some are calling violence against Hillary Clinton. What do you think of that?”
Collins’ response was simply breathtaking.
“Well, we know it would not be that.”
Seriously, Chris? You actually watched Trump tee off, and then saw a photoshopped golf ball hit Hillary in the back and seemingly knock it down–and you actually believe that’s not what really happened?
Collins then prattled on about how he doesn’t retweet or forward things himself since “everything and anything can be taken out of context.” When Camerota asked Collins if he thought Trump should do the same, Collins said–again, with a straight face–that he wasn’t going to “tell the president what to do,” but merely suggested that everyone not forward or retweet things.
No, Chris. This is a time when any adult with any iota of decency knows that it’s time to tell Trump what to do. It’s time to tell him to apologize to Hillary and delete that disgusting retweet–while he’s resigning his post. If the rest of us pulled a stunt like this, we would not only be fired, but told–not asked–to seek professional help. This is no different. Anyone who thinks it’s even remotely acceptable to share such a tweet has no business being anywhere near nuclear codes.
Collins represents one of the reddest districts in the Northeast. It has a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+11, making it the most Republican district in New York. However, you would think that people in districts this red–particularly in the Northeast–at least have some standards, and a reasonable amount of intelligence. Is Collins willing to tell the people of Western New York how he can even think such a violent GIF didn’t really mean what it actually does? If Collins thinks the people of Western New York are that dumb, maybe it’s time for him to follow Trump out the door.
In a case of particularly bad timing, the one Democrat taking a look at this race, Army veteran and business consultant Erin Cole, ended her campaign on Monday night. Get with the program, Western New York Dems. The people of this district deserve better.
(featured image courtesy Yahoo!, available under a Creative Commons-BY license)
