While Democrats debate the value of civility, President Donald Trump continues to lean into his boorish attacks. Aside from tirades against his usual targets like Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif. and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the president also mocked the #MeToo movement during a political rally in Montana Thursday night.
"Let’s say I’m debating Pocahontas [Trump's favorite slur for Warren, who has Native-American ancestry]," he said. "I promise you I’ll do this: You know those kits they sell on television for $2? Learn your heritage? We will take that kit – but we have to do it gently because we’re in the #MeToo generation – we will take that kit and toss it, hoping it does not hit her and injure her arm."
Trump was in Montana to campaign against Democrat Sen. Jon Tester — who he blamed for the tanked nomination of Dr. Ronny Jackson as head of the Veterans Affairs Department — and in support of State Auditor Matt Rosendale.
Trump also ripped into Therese Patricia Okoumou, the woman who climbed the base of the Statue of Liberty on July 4 to protest the detainment of immigrant children. "You saw that clown yesterday on the Statue of Liberty?" he told the crowd. "You see the guys that went up there? I wouldn’t have done it. I would have said 'Let’s get some nets. We’ll wait till she [falls].'"
In Trump's quip about the #MeToo movement, he reinforced propaganda and misinformation about the reckoning: that it's not about valid concerns or danger against women and other vulnerable people, but about sensitivity and framing. His words bolster the attacks from the movement's critics and diminishes the sexual violence that survivors face.
It's not surprising, given the president has been accused of sexual assault by multiple women, bragged about sexually abusing women on tape, and has frequently defended men who've been accused of violence against women.
"Peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation. Some are true and some are false. Some are old and some are new. There is no recovery for someone falsely accused - life and career are gone. Is there no such thing any longer as Due Process?" Trump tweeted in February, after White House aide Rob Porter's ouster amid horrific domestic violence accusations.
Whether Trump has outright articulated his defense for men in spite of their alleged histories of violence against women or just brought them into his campaign or administration, he's long demonstrated it's not a disqualifying factor. As Vox reported:
Steve Bannon, CEO of Trump’s presidential campaign and White House chief strategist until August 2017, was charged in 1996 with domestic violence, battery, and dissuading a witness. Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was charged with battery in March 2016 after a Breitbart reporter, Michelle Fields, reported he had forcibly grabbed her. (A prosecutor declined to proceed with the case.) Andrew Puzder, Trump’s initial nominee for secretary of labor, was accused of assault and battery by his ex-wife, Lisa Fierstein, and he eventually withdrew from consideration for the Cabinet post.
In November, Trump backed Roy Moore, the Republican candidate for the US Senate seat in Alabama previously held by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was accused of assaulting a 14-year-old girl and pursuing dates with other teenage girls when he was in his 30s. “He totally denies it,” the president said of the allegations against Moore. Trump also came to the defense of ousted Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, who faced sexual harassment claims from multiple women and had a $32 million settlement with one accuser. Trump in April 2017 said O’Reilly is a “good person” who he doesn’t think “did anything wrong.”
And finally, it was announced Thursday that former Fox News executive and Roger Ailes henchman, Bill Shine is entering the White House. Shine stepped down from Fox News last year after being accused of covering up sexual harassment scandals at the network, by protecting alleged abusers like Ailes and O'Reilly and dismissing complaints from women.
On social media, many users questioned if Democrats would continue to focus on Waters' lack of civility.
Shares