Nicolle Wallace ripped into Donald Trump after the president slammed ABC News’ Rachel Scott as “a terrible reporter,” one of many attacks he’s made against female reporters in recent weeks.
Wallace addressed the president’s dig at Scott during Monday’s episode of “Deadline: White House” on MS NOW. The drama all started on Monday, when Scott asked Trump if he stood by releasing footage of the fatal drug boat strikes in the Caribbean. Trump responded to the question by blasting Scott as “the most obnoxious reporter in the whole place.”
In response to this attack on Scott, Wallace sounded off on Trump, noting, “I don’t want to zoom past what just happened, because I don’t ever want it to be normal.”
Specifically, Wallace noted it should never be normal for the president to issue “verbal violence” on female journalists. She then rattled off the various insults Trump has issued to female members of the press corps.
“He called ABC’s Rachel Scott today ‘obnoxious and terrible.’ On Dec. 6, he called Kaitlan Collins ‘stupid and nasty,’” Wallace listed. “On Nov. 27, he said, ‘Are you stupid?’ to CBS journalist Nancy Cordes. On Nov. 26, he called The New York Times’ Katie Rogers ‘ugly.’ On Nov. 18, he called ABC’s Mary Bruce ‘terrible and insubordinate,’ to whom I’m not sure. On Nov. 14, he told a Bloomberg reporter, ‘Quiet Piggy.’”
Wallace didn’t hold back with her criticism of Trump, slamming the comments as “sick s–t.”
“This is sick s–t. This is sick,” she went on. “And anyone in the room is in the room to do a job for their viewers or their readers. But they should go home tonight and think about whether their sisters or their daughters or their moms or their sons or their husbands or their fathers think that there’s something else they should do the next time [Trump] calls a female journalist obnoxious, terrible, stupid, nasty, stupid, ugly, terrible, insubordinate or piggy.”
Wallace called on the press corps to show some “solidarity” and push back on Trump’s behavior before it becomes the norm in society.
“We’re either going to normalize this and then you’re going to hear all sorts of prominent people calling women all sorts of names,” she added. “I’m sure by the time I get off TV, I’ll have a few of those myself. But we’re either going to normalize this, and usher in an era of unprecedented misogyny, or that press corps is going to act as one and say, ‘No more.’”
Watch Wallace’s full commentary above.
“Deadline: White House” airs weekdays at 4 p.m. ET on MS NOW.
