President Donald Trump unloaded on MSNBC anchor Mika Brzezinski Thursday for calling his secretary of state "a wannabe dictator’s butt boy."
Brzezinski made the comment on her show "Morning Joe" Wednesday morning and in response received backlash from U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, among others. She apologized later that day, but Trump said the apology wouldn’t be enough if she were conservative.
"If it was a Conservative that said what 'crazed' Mika Brzezinski stated on her show yesterday, using a certain horrible term, that person would be banned permanently from television," Trump wrote on Twitter.
"She will probably be given a pass, despite their terrible ratings. Congratulations to Richard Grenell, our great Ambassador to Germany, for having the courage to take this horrible issue on!" he added.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1073269882911903746
MSNBC is declining to comment on the president's tweets.
In her apology Wednesday, Brzezinski called the use of the term "butt boy" a "SUPER BAD choice of words."
Totally agree with you -SUPER BAD choice of words .. I should have said 'water boy"... like for football teams or something like that.. apologize to @SenatorDurbin too! SO SORRY! https://t.co/zIqsGdK3Tk
— Mika Brzezinski (@morningmika) December 12, 2018
She has not tweeted anything else since, and on Thursday morning her husband and co-anchor Joe Scarborough blamed a "long-planned family event" for her absence on their show. MSNBC confirmed that Brzezinski had a pre-scheduled day off.
Trump has a storied relationship with "Morning Joe," calling them "supporters" during his primary campaign but feuding with them since their relationship went south. Most notably, Trump mocked Brzezinski for trying to hang out with him at his Mar-a-Lago resort on New Years in 2017 while "bleeding badly from a face-lift."
Grenell called Brzezinski’s original comment "totally unacceptable & deeply disturbing" and later criticized her for not apologizing to gay people when she tweeted she was sorry for the choice of words.
"This is totally unacceptable & deeply disturbing. Sexualizing gay people this way is designed to control them & minimize our worth," he said.
outrageous. This is totally unacceptable & deeply disturbing. Sexualizing gay people this way is designed to control them & minimize our worth. https://t.co/fQidRbJSxb
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) December 12, 2018
accepting apologies is important. We all fail. But I don’t see that you’ve actually apologized to gays? Your words demean, mock and therefore try to control whole groups by minimizing our humanity. @morningmika https://t.co/whNqjHYjfn
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) December 12, 2018
Brzezinski's comments came during a segment with Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) in which everyone on the show was blasting Pompeo over the administration's response to the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
UPDATE: 1:57 P.M.: After initially declining comment on Brzezinski's absence, MSNBC said Scarborough's reason for her not being on the program was correct.