Trump Doubles Down on ‘Morning Joe’ Attacks: ‘Bad Show,’ ‘Fake News’
President says Joe Scarborough called him to spike damning National Enquirer story
Brian Flood | June 30, 2017 @ 6:47 AM
Last Updated: June 30, 2017 @ 7:38 AM
President Donald Trump took to Twitter to trash “Morning Joe” co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski again on Friday, one day after saying Brzezinski was “bleeding badly from a face-lift” in a personal attack.
The president called the show “low rated,” “fake news” and a “bad show” while accusing the “Morning Joe” co-hosts of lying in an op-ed. Scarborough and Brzezinski penned an opinion piece in the Washington Post on Friday titled, “Donald Trump is not well,” in response to the president’s Twitter attack on the pair.
“This year, top White House staff members warned that the National Enquirer was planning to publish a negative article about us unless we begged the president to have the story spiked. We ignored their desperate pleas,” they wrote.
The MSNBC hosts appear to be accusing the White House of blackmail, but Trump remembers things differently, tweeting that Scarborough called him to stop the National Enquirer article.
Watched low rated @Morning_Joe for first time in long time. FAKE NEWS. He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show
Scarborough and Brzezinski’s column continued: “Despite his constant claims that he no longer watches the show, the president’s closest advisers tell us otherwise. That is unfortunate. We believe it would be better for America and the rest of the world if he would keep his 60-inch-plus flat- screen TV tuned to ‘Fox & Friends'”
The opinion piece goes on to say that Trump’s behavior has changed for the worse and that he is no longer capable of keeping his emotions in check.
Kellyanne Conway declined to defend Trump’s personal attacks on Scarborough and Brzezinski, while appearing on Friday’s “Good Morning America.”
“The president normally does not draw first blood. He is a counter-puncher,” Conway told “GMA” co-anchor George Stephanopoulos. “I endorse the president’s right to fight back when he is being mercilessly attacked and when the airwaves are filled with raw sewage about him and his fitness for office.”
10 Women Trump Attacked Based on Looks, from Mika Brzezinski to Heidi Klum (Photos)
Donald Trump's "face-lift" jab at "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski was denounced by all sides. But it was far from the first time he has attacked female critics by insulting their looks, as these 13 women prove.
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Mika Brzezinski
Trump tweeted: "How come low I.Q. Crazy Mika...came to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!"
Jolie has been named "most beautiful woman in the world" by Vogue, Vanity Fair, and others. But in 2007, Trump deemed the liberal actress and humanitarian unattractive: "I do understand beauty, and she's not."
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Katarina Witt
Not even a champion Olympic figure skater is exempt from Trump's insults. In November 1992, Trump told New York Magazine that Witt "could only be described as attractive if you like a woman with a bad complexion who is built like a linebacker."
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Carly Fiorina
In an attempt to discredit rival Carly Fiorina during the Republican primaries, Trump said in a 2015 interview with Rolling Stone, "Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that?"
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Arianna Huffington
In 2012, he took to Twitter to insult the liberal co-creator of the Huffington Post: ".@ariannahuff is unattractive both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man- he made a good decision."
Paula Parisi for TheWrap
Rosie O'Donnell
Trump said on a 2006 episode of "Entertainment Tonight": "Rosie O'Donnell is disgusting, both inside and out. If you take a look at her, she's a slob...If I were running The View, I'd fire Rosie. I'd look her right in that fat, ugly face of hers and say, 'Rosie, you're fired."
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Alicia Machado
The former Miss Universe said Trump called her "Miss Piggy" and made other disparaging remarks about her body.
Cher
According to The Telegraph, Trump fired back at Cher in 2012 after the singer criticized then-Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney. ".@cher--I don’t wear a “rug”—it’s mine. And I promise not to talk about your massive plastic surgeries that didn’t work," he tweeted.
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Heidi Klum
Trump told the New York Times in 2015 that Heidi Klum "sadly" was "no longer a 10." Klum clapped back at Trump's insult with this mocking tweet.
Heidi Cruz
Trump took on rival Ted Cruz by insulting Cruz's wife. Trump compared a less-than-flattering photo of Heidi with a glamor shot of Melania Trump and included the caption, "No need to 'spill the beans.' The images are worth a thousand words."
Donald Trump's "face-lift" jab at "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski was denounced by all sides. But it was far from the first time he has attacked female critics by insulting their looks, as these 13 women prove.