We have previously reported that while in Michigan Saturday night for an unnecessary campaign rally, President Trump attacked Senator Jon Tester of Montana, and that Senator Elizabeth Warren has announced she is going to help Tester with fundraising.
But given all the controversy and outrage over comedian Michelle Wolf’s comments at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, what has been overlooked is just how outrageous Trump’s comments in Michigan were.
In short, people should be much more outraged at what Trump said in Washington, Michigan than at what Wolf said in Washington, D.C..
Here is a summary of Trump’s most disturbing comments from Saturday’s rally:
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
First, we must be clear that what Trump said about Tester was totally unacceptable, and we should be MUCH more outraged about this. The President of the United States threatened a sitting U.S. Senator with blackmail.
Trump said,  “I know things about Tester that I could say, too. And if I said them, he’d never be elected again.â€Â What is he talking about? Trump’s many attacks on Tester for doing his job on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee are off the wall and off the charts, and he should be roundly condemned for them.
But the most outrageous moment of the evening occurred when Trump asked “Are there any Hispanics in the room?†And the crowd booed. And Trump loved it.
Yes, the Trump deplorables lived up to their name by booing an entire ethnic group, and the president went along with it instead of calling it out. This may be OK in Trump Country but not in the rest of America.
Presidents are supposed to bring people together in this country, not divide us and create racial divisions.
Perhaps what was most outrageous is that this was not covered in the Washington media and was not discussed at all in the Sunday morning talk shows. Trump has managed to make the media accept his unacceptable behavior, and to make the abnormal appear normal.
TRUMP: Are there any Hispanics in the room?
[crowd boos]
TRUMP: Not so many? That's okay… and in fairness, Kanye West gets it! pic.twitter.com/CegLcNzDXy
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 29, 2018
The most bizarre Trump comments of all occurred when he launched into a rambling diatribe about the Mueller investigation and the fact that the woman Russian lawyer at the Trump Tower meeting in June of 2016 just admitted she is a Russian spy.  The president seemed to attempt to defend his campaign team by saying that the person they were meeting with was taking orders from Putin, so the meeting to get dirt on Hillary Clinton was OK:       Â
I guarantee you, I’m tougher on Russia, nobody ever thought. In fact, have you heard about the lawyer? For a year, a woman lawyer, she was like, ‘Oh, I know nothing.’ Now all of a sudden she supposedly is involved with government.
You know why? If she did that, because Putin and the group said, ‘You know, this Trump is killing us. Why don’t you say that you’re involved with government so that we can go and make their life in the United States even more chaotic.’
Look at what’s happened. Look at how these politicians have fallen for this junk. Russian collusion — give me a break.
We can’t call Trump’s comments twisted logic because they contain no logic at all. They are pure fantasy, and the sad thing is that many in his audience believe him even when he makes no sense and is contradicted by quality reporting in the Washington Post, CNN, and the New York Times.
We may still end up in a constitutional crisis in this country based on Trump’s ignoring not only the constitution but also political norms. Once again, though, it is the media that is playing along and making the bizarre seem normal.
When Trump says and does outrageous things we should be outraged. It is the very least we can do to save our democracy.
I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.
