President Donald Trump was noticeably quick to cut off, interrupt or scold female reporters who asked him questions about his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh during a press conference Monday in the Rose Garden.
Before ABC’s Cecilia Vega had a chance to raise her question about Kavanaugh, Trump was immediately combative. After calling on Vega to ask a question, he joked that she was not expecting to get called on.
“She’s shocked that I picked her, she’s in a state of shock,” Trump said. Vega waited to be handed the microphone, and either said “I’m not — thank you, Mr. President” or “I’m not thinking, Mr. President” as she stood up and glanced at her notes. Trump clearly thought she said the latter.
“It’s okay, I know you’re not thinking, you never do,” he said.
“I’m sorry?” Vega said, before Trump prodded her to ask her question, which was about the White House limiting the scope of the FBI investigation into Kavanaugh. Trump then steamrolled her, asking, “what does that have to do with trade?”
He refused to take any questions about Kavanaugh until he spoke more about the new trade deal between the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
As tensions between the Trump administration and the press continue, the president sparred with ABC correspondent Cecilia Vega in the Rose Garden today. https://t.co/pox12C4iJr pic.twitter.com/p2CHkZj3zh
— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 1, 2018
Moments later, Trump scolded CNN’s Kaitlan Collins for attempting to ask a question about the limited scope of the probe. The two sparred briefly, before Collins’ line of questioning was cut off and she was forced to hand the microphone to another reporter who had questions about Trump’s new trade agreement.
“Don’t do that, that’s not nice,” he said.
Trump to CNN's Kaitlan Collins when she asked about Brett Kavanaugh: "Don't do that" pic.twitter.com/D49Q4eZuum
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) October 1, 2018
Trump eventually took both Vega’s and Collins’ questions about Kavanaugh and the FBI probe into allegations of sexual assault against him, but interrupted Collins when he thought her turn was over.
“You’ve had enough,” he said.
While their questions weren’t about Kavanaugh, Trump was brusque with two other female reporters during the presser on Monday.
One woman asked him to clarify the comments he had made about Democrats not being “angels.”
“No, I think I’ll save it for a book like everybody else and I’ll write it, okay? I’m not giving it to you,” he said.
Trump also asked cut off another female reporter who asked him about the failure to follow through with a ban on bump stocks.
“No, you’re wrong about that,” he said.
“Nobody has more respect for women than I do.”
— Toadglans von McMario-Kart
On the plus side, he didn’t turn up the music and hold his hand over their mouths to muffle their screams.
I have never been more embarrassed to be a citizen of this country than I am right now. This is crude, vulgar, and not at all what we would expect from a “president” given that Trump really isn’t one anyway. Disgusting.
“No, I think I’ll save it for a book like everybody else and I’ll write it, okay? I’m not giving it to you,” he said.
Yah right. He can’t even remember what he said this morning. He’ll have no definition for angel and he won’t write the book himself.
And all the other reporters are silently complicit in trump’s misogyny.
Misogynists are frequently dismissive of women, we know this. And it matters not, in the moment, that he is playing fast and loose with 53% of the electorate. He is not the stable genius he thinks he is. I would enjoy seeing 80% of women and 60% of men vote for someone other than trump in 2020 (should he still be in office then). A monumental drubbing that he could not possibly spin his way out of.