I know from a poll that hardly any of you have subscriptions to The Washington Post. It is too bad that when an important OpEd is published there or in the New York Times that so many people don’t get to read it in it’s entirety. I wish she’d have published this in The New York Post rather than The Washington Post.
If you do subscribe to The Washington Post below is the link to the opinion piece written by Patti Davis, Ronald and Nancy Reagan’s daughter. It is a reaction to Trump’s suggesting that John Dingell might not be in Heaven looking down, but might be in Hell looking up, in gratitude to him for lowering the flags to half-staff in his honor after he died. Davis said this was Trump “aiming for the jugular.”
I wonder how much coverage this will receive. I wonder if Trump will rage and hate tweet about Patti Davis’s OpEd in the Washington Post. Patti Davis is a progressive Democrat who accused Trump of failing to provide solace to the nation in times of tragedy after the Pittsburg synagogue shooting writing in another Washington Post OpEd and also saying in a CNN interview “let's stop asking him!”
Even though as I write this her Wikipedia page hasn’t been updated to include a reference to this I am sure Trump could look at it and find things to insult her about.
It would be good to have a reporter ask him about it in one of his helicopter mash-ups.
HuffPost had a piece on her OpEd calling it stinging:
Ronald Reagan’s Daughter Torches Donald Trump: ‘His Cruelty Really Has No Limits’ --— Patti Davis said the president’s sense of decency is “nonexistent” in a stinging editorial for The Washington Post. HUFFPOST
Here are some of the quotes not in the HUFFPOST story. She wrote that he showed that Trump’s cruelty has no limits and added the following:
When my father died in 2004, I happened to come across online comments saying he should have died sooner; others rejoiced that he was dead. A comedian on television mocked the fact that there was nearly a week filled with somber events and services, including my father’s body lying in state. The comedian ridiculed the plans and said something to the effect of “We get it. He’s dead. Enough already!”
Of course, none of that compares with what Trump said about John Dingell, who had been the longest-serving member of Congress in history, representing Michigan for 59 years before retiring in 2015. Still, I know the humiliation and hurt when cruel comments are lobbed from a public forum, and my heart goes out to Debbie Dingell.
Trump has assaulted numerous people at his rallies — a Gold Star family, a disabled reporter, various women, political rivals. He knows full well the impact of attacking people so publicly. Maybe some of those in his audience on Wednesday finally began to perceive that his cruelty is limitless, his sense of decency nonexistent.
She went on to quote what Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday in her press conference:
Q: The President last night had some pretty harsh comments about your dear friend, Debbie Dingell, and her late husband. I wanted to know if you had any reaction.
Speaker Pelosi. Let us pray. Let us pray for the President. This is – the President clearly is insecure when it comes to statespersons, whether it was John McCain. Think of what he said about John McCain, and his supporters just overlooked that. John McCain? Now John Dingell.
What the President misunderstands is that cruelty is not wit. Just because he gets a laugh for saying the cruel things that he says doesn't mean he's funny. It's not funny at all. It's very sad.
Here’s where Davis critiques Pelosi for not going far enough:
I have to disagree with her. I think he understands perfectly the power of cruelty to inflict deep wounds. He wasn’t aiming for wit. He wouldn’t bother with wit when he can aim for the heart of a widow and try to break it again.
I’ve added to this essay in the first few comments below.