Ever since President Donald Trump unleashed a sexist Twitter attack on MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski, the "Morning Joe" co-host says she has received more hateful messages over the internet than ever. She now says that her love for her job has seemed to regress as a result of Trump's attack.
"The level for me of the tweet was below zero," Brzezinski told Politico. "I remember being surprised even in myself . . . I was on the set, I was finishing the show, and everybody looked really uncomfortable," Brzezinski explained. "Willie [Geist] showed it to me, he was sitting next to me. I felt like people were more upset than I was."
Brzezinski said she's received more hatred directed towards her over the internet as a result of Trump's tweet than she has in the past.
"I’m getting more hate now than I’ve ever gotten in my life," she told Politico. "I can’t read it. I’m working on unplugging more because it’s the worst I’ve ever seen it."
Brzezinski explained that Trump's tweet was the latest of recent personal hardships she had been going through at the time.
"In the past two years, I’ve lost my best friend to pancreatic cancer, I’ve gotten divorced, my oldest daughter had this harrowing day on her college campus, and we thought she had been kidnapped," she said. "My father went into the hospital and died, and right after my dad died, my mother had two heart attacks — and a month later the president tweeted."
Although, she added that she hadn't been as outraged as others were by the news and that she's been "very open" about receiving botox in the past.
"The ones about the facelift were humorous," she said. "I wasn’t on the same page as everyone else. I feel embarrassed if people think I was embarrassed. I got Botox. I’m very open about that stuff. It didn’t hurt me."
But as a co-host of "Morning Joe," she explained that she doesn't feel the same love towards her job as she used to. Brzezinski described it as "a job I used to love, now it’s a job I have to do every day," Politico reported. "I make a point of taking days off, because I have to keep my thoughts in check. One shrill moment will be ripped on the internet. I don’t love it as much, but I feel really like, dammit, I’m going to work."
Brzezinski was hardly Trump's first target over Twitter, which he's used for years as a platform to bolster himself or his allies and attack his perceived opponents. Trump's most recent series of vulgar insults were directed towards Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., when he insinuated she would perform inappropriate favors in exchange for campaign contributions.
Gillibrand opened up about how it was difficult to explain the situation to her kids, ages 9 and 12.
"When I picked up the littlest one, he’s in fourth grade, all I said was, 'Mommy’s had a tough day today. I got in a fight with the president,'" Gillibrand told Politico. "[Trump] basically said mommy was doing a bad job, and I said no I’m not, and I stood up for all the women."
She added, "I don’t accept his tweet as a personal insult — I’m fighting for something that’s important, I’m not going to be silenced on it."
UPDATE: Brzezinski appeared to clarify some of her thoughts on Wednesday afternoon, and said loved her job, despite the "deeply challenging" political environment.
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