Trump’s uncivil defense
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had a point.
Last Monday, she stepped to the podium during a White House briefing and she was rightfully upset, because she’d been asked to leave a farm-to-table restaurant in Lexington, Virginia.
The owner of the Red Hen restaurant polled her employees and they voted not to feed Sanders and her entourage, because they don’t agree with Sanders and the administration in which she works.
Personally, I don’t agree with that kind of thing.
Refusing to serve somebody because you don’t share their politics, is just like telling somebody to go elsewhere if you don’t want to bake them a cake (if you catch my drift).
Sanders, though, didn’t just explain the indignity that she’d faced at that restaurant. She went further.
She lectured the assembled media about incivility.
You can, as Sanders announced, disagree, without being disagreeable.
That would be a sentiment worthy of contemplation if it wasn’t for the lack of civility her boss sprays on Twitter and in person – daily.
Because of that, Sanders was engaging in, I might add, a bit of an uncivil defense.
Even before Sanders held that press briefing, President Trump had already launched an early morning Twitter attack against that restaurant.
“The Red Hen Restaurant should focus more on cleaning its filthy canopies, doors and windows (badly needs a paint job),” he wrote.
So much for civility.
In another tweet that morning, he also attacked California Congresswoman Maxine Waters, who had held a rally in which she advocated confronting members of the Trump administration wherever they would appear in public.
Once again, I don’t believe it’s helpful to confront people face-to-face who don’t share your politics.
I’m also against Mr. Trump calling Rep. Waters a “low IQ person,” in response to her statements at that rally.
Especially since his own press representative is calling for civility.
Later, on that same day, Trump held a rally in South Carolina.
While waiting for that rally to begin, a CNN reporter was verbally attacked by several Trump supporters, one of whom started yelling, “You are scum. Get out of here.”
That’s the hideous outgrowth of Trump’s repeated claims that the “Fake News” media is out to get him.
During that rally, he spent much of his time uncivilly attacking a wide range of people who had nothing to do with why he was in South Carolina.
He made negative references to: late night talk show hosts, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon; Rep. Waters; Nancy Pelosi; the Red Hen restaurant; Hillary Clinton; Virginia Senator Mark Warner; Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford.
All to the delight of his adoring crowd.
When Trump mentions Hillary Clinton, he knows his followers will always respond with the chant, “Lock her up. Lock her up,” even if he and his crowd know there’s no chance she’ll ever be locked up.
He just craves the adoration.
I’ll admit, I’m no crusader for civility.
I’m not calling for everybody to step back and take a breath.
Politics, and especially highly-charged American politics, can easily be heated at times.
It’s what makes a democracy, well, work.
I take great pride in my discourse involving this democratic form of government every week in this space.
I’m not particularly eager to hold back when attacking the president, either.
Case in point:
Last Wednesday night, Trump took his show on the road to North Dakota.
His rally was filled with the usual unsolicited personal attacks, and self-congratulatory nonsense in all of his rallies.
He told his audience that during the 2016 presidential election he was the first Republican to win the state of Wisconsin since Dwight D. Eisenhower did it in 1952.
Well, Ronald Reagan won Wisconsin in 1984. (He only lost Minnesota and Washington, D.C.)
And, in 1972, Richard Nixon won Wisconsin, while only losing to George McGovern in Massachusetts.
That’s the kind of stuff that makes the President of the United States of America (I’ll be proudly uncivil here) a bold-faced liar!
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter and anchor for Entertainment Tonight and 20-year TV news veteran. Email him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.