We begin today’s roundup with an op-ed by MSNBC hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough:
It is disturbing that the president of the United States keeps up his unrelenting assault on women. From his menstruation musings about Megyn Kelly, to his fat-shaming treatment of a former Miss Universe, to his braggadocio claims about grabbing women’s genitalia, the 45th president is setting the poorest of standards for our children. We were heartened to hear a number of Republican lawmakers call out Mr. Trump for his offensive words and can only hope that the women who are closest to him will follow their examples. It would be the height of hypocrisy to claim the mantle of women’s empowerment while allowing a family member to continue such abusive conduct. [...]
We have known Mr. Trump for more than a decade and have some fond memories of our relationship together. But that hasn’t stopped us from criticizing his abhorrent behavior or worrying about his fitness. During the height of the 2016 presidential campaign, Joe often listened to Trump staff members complain about their boss’s erratic behavior, including a top campaign official who was as close to the Republican candidate as anyone.
We, too, have noticed a change in his behavior over the past few years. Perhaps that is why we were neither shocked nor insulted by the president’s personal attack. The Donald Trump we knew before the campaign was a flawed character but one who still seemed capable of keeping his worst instincts in check.
Gail Collins at The New York Times:
Back in the day, he sent me a copy of a column he objected to, with some notes suggesting I was a “dog and a liar” with “the face of a pig.”
I’ve had many opportunities to make use of that story since Trump became a presidential candidate, so it’s all fine for me. However, I have to admit that it did not occur to me he’d keep doing that kind of stuff as president of the United States. [...]
A lot of top Republican leaders have expressed their dismay about what was obviously a sexist insult, but that’s hardly sufficient. This is the same party, after all, that recently produced its Senate health care bill drafted by a committee of 13 men. A bill whose defenders have argued, in effect, that making maternity health coverage more expensive is not a problem because guys don’t get pregnant.
Here’s Eugene Robinson’s take:
As I’ve written before, I’m not qualified to assess Trump’s mental health. But there are moments when it would be dishonest not to raise questions about his stability. If the commander in chief of the most powerful military force in history has a problem with impulse control, the whole world has a problem. [...]
What’s truly alarming is the self-defeating nature of Trump’s spasms. At the moment, he is trying desperately to get GOP senators to agree on a health-care bill. Did a sexist attack against Brzezinski help him with Collins or Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) or Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), who happened to be on “Morning Joe” on Thursday? Not on your life.
The obvious question: What happens if there is an international crisis and Trump’s delicate ego is threatened? Can those around him contain his worst instincts?
They’d better be able to. Not since Richard Nixon’s final days in the White House have I been so worried about a president’s grip on reality.
John Cassidy calls Trump the “troll-in-chief”:
Donald Trump promised to bring the country together, and he’s finally accomplished it. On Thursday, people from across the political spectrum were unified in their condemnation of his incredibly crass and sexist attack on Mika Brzezinski, the co-host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” [...]
Back in November, when Trump spoke to Stahl, he said that he would probably keep using Twitter after he took office, but he also intimated that he would tone things down. “I’m going to do very restrained, if I use it at all,” he said. This is turning out to be one of his many unfulfilled promises. And Thursday’s outburst confirmed a sad truth. Where America, until recently, had at its helm a Commander-in-Chief whom other countries acknowledged as a global leader and a figure of stature even if they didn't like his policies, it now has something very different: an oafish Troll-in-Chief who sullies his office daily.
Ed Kilgore notes that Trump is his own worst enemy when it comes to press coverage:
President Trump frequently excoriates the media for covering “Fake News” about his various controversies instead of covering the incredible, unprecedented accomplishments of his administration. But he has no one but himself to blame for any lack of media coverage of legislative progress on two of his more popular immigration proposals today.
Turning to policy, Henry Tuttle writes about the GOP’s devastating Medicaid cuts:
As president and CEO of Health Center Partners of Southern California, I am deeply discouraged by the U.S. Senate’s health care bill as it takes aim at the nation’s safety net insurance, Medicaid. For 60 years, Medicaid has been providing life-giving and lifesaving care for our expecting mothers, our children, our families, friends and neighbors living in poverty, our disabled, our developmentally delayed, and our parents and grandparents living in nursing homes.
Medicaid covers 1 in 3 Californians, 1 in 2 with disabilities, and 3 out of 5 nursing home residents in California. [...]
True access to care for those who are currently uninsured — and the millions more who will become uninsured under this bill — will be diminished or eliminated. This is simply unacceptable for the greatest nation on earth.
On a final note, Michael Tomasky at The Daily Beast points out the GOP doesn’t care about health care:
[N]one of the changes Senate Republicans are about to make will be for the purpose of ensuring that Americans have better health care. God forbid that. They don’t want that. Giving people better health care isn’t why they’re doing this. If you look back over the history of this country, I don’t think you can find a single prominent instance when conservatives have supported broadening access to health care for American citizens. [...] Tax cuts, of course, have been one of the secret reasons for doing health care “reform” too. Everything but improving people’s health. If they wanted to do that, they could fix what’s wrong with Obamacare easily enough. But why should a health care bill be about that?
