Conservatives are disturbed by the domestic-abuse allegations against White House staff secretary Rob Porter, but it's hard to accept lectures on insensitivity from hard-core Clinton partisans who wouldn't take seriously the allegations of Bill Clinton's sexual assaults.
On Sunday's AM Joy on MSNBC, host Joy Reid played clips of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway saying she won't be lectured by Clintonistas, which Reid says "works with the Fox News crowd." Then she brought in MSNBC analyst Anand Giridharadas, who proclaimed "This is a rape culture presidency, and Donald Trump has become the commander in chief of American rape culture."
JOY REID: We had on Republicans earlier, and they did the same thing: Pivot to Democrats, pivot to Bill Clinton. It's been hard to get anyone in the administration to directly answer the questions about Rob Porter and Donald Trump. That approach, it works with the Fox News crowd. Does it work in a larger context?
ANAND: No. And we don't need to worry about that kind of monster, a Kellyanne Conway who will say whatever for money, so let’s disregard her. I think this week was actually a turning point with two different staffers, these charges dredged up, these haunting pictures. And then you have the president’s own history, of self-declaring himself of being a vagina grabber, and winning on that platform.
This week was a turning point becasuse we are starting to realize that Trumpism doesn’t merely tolerate sexual abuse. Sexual abuse is a very apt metaphor for everything Trumpism is. The cultivation of fear in everyone, the insistence that people are loving it, when you are actually degrading and dehumanizing them and making their lives harder, then going around and saying “The blacks love you,” “Hispanics love you,” “women love you.” The state of constant insecurity and the inversion of your own insecurities into this attempt to dominate others.
This is a rape culture presidency, and Donald Trump has become the commander in chief of American rape culture.
That was followed by feminist Anushay Hossain lecturing all Republican women to leave the Republican Party. "I don't know how Kellyanne Conway looks at herself in the mirror. I don't pull this card, I'm a mother, too, and I don't pull this card -- but as a mother, how do you look at your daughters in the face?"
Earlier Giradharadas: Trump's 'Profound Sexual and Masculine Insecurities' Threaten to Kill Us All
