Every time you think Donald Trump has gone as low as he can, he finds a way to prove you wrong. Wednesday night, Trump showed how much lower he can go by implying that the late Rep. John Dingell is in hell. Trump also lashed out at Dingell’s widow, Rep. Debbie Dingell, for having the nerve to vote for impeachment even though Trump (claims he) provided “A-plus treatment” for the Dingell family following John’s death in February.
Trump recounted how Debbie Dingell called him to thank him for ordering flags to be flown at half-staff, claiming that Dingell said, “John would be so thrilled. He's looking down, he'd be so thrilled. Thank you so much sir.” (Obviously the details of Trump’s claims here were suspect even before he threw in that “sir,” the classic tell that Trump is making stuff up.)
Then Trump went on: “I said: 'That's okay, don't worry about it.' Maybe he's looking up, I don't know.” As in, maybe John Dingell is looking up from hell rather than down from heaven. Even the Trump rally crowd was not thrilled with this, and, hearing groans, Trump quickly added, “But let's assume he's looking down.” Too late, dude. You said what you said.
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham tried to get out of questions about Trump’s comments by saying, “You'd have to talk to the president about that,” then added, “The president is a counter-puncher. It was a very very supportive and wild crowd and he was just riffing on some of the things that had been happening the past few days.” Apparently it wasn’t a supportive enough crowd to go with Trump to “John Dingell is in hell,” and how exactly you get from zeroing in on one of 230 House members that voted for impeachment to attack her over the months-ago death of her husband to “just riffing on some of the things that had been happening in the past few days” is a damn mystery.
Rep. Debbie Dingell has responded with enormous dignity, but also enormous pain, tweeting, “Mr. President, let’s set politics aside. My husband earned all his accolades after a lifetime of service. I’m preparing for the first holiday season without the man I love. You brought me down in a way you can never imagine and your hurtful words just made my healing much harder.” She added, on CNN, “It is still something I am really grieving over. This Thanksgiving was hard. Christmas will be even harder. And I'm going to go back to doing my job.”
Michigan Republican Rep. Fred Upton tweeted, “I’ve always looked up to John Dingell - my good friend and a great Michigan legend. There was no need to 'dis' him in a crass political way. Most unfortunate and an apology is due.” Okay, Fred, but an apology is due from whom? Say his name!