Nicolle Wallace to women in White House: Condemn Trump’s misogyny

MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace, who served as George W. Bush’s communications director, issued a call Thursday afternoon to women working for President Trump: Call him out.

“As someone who once proudly called myself a Republican, the party will be permanently associated with misogyny if leaders don’t stand up and demand a retraction,” she said.

Earlier in the day, Trump fired off a pair of bizarre tweets attacking MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. He denigrated Brzezinski’s intelligence and claimed that she was “bleeding badly from a face-lift” while visiting his Mar-a-Lago estate six months ago.

The comments drew widespread condemnation as sexist, including from congressional Republicans.

On her show “Deadline: White House,” Wallace said women in the White House needed to join the chorus of criticism. She singled out deputy national security adviser Dina Powell, top Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

“As a woman who was fortunate enough to work in the White House as a public servant, all the women collecting paychecks from the U.S. taxpayers — Dina Powell, Kellyanne Conway, Elaine Chao, Betsy DeVos — you should all go on the record and condemn your boss’ comments,” Wallace, a frequent Trump critic, said. “And you should work behind the scenes to educate him just how offensive they are.”

She finished off her remarks by appealing to maternal instincts.

“And finally, most importantly, as the mother of a son, I ask any woman who’s defending these comments how they plan to raise good men if the most powerful man in the world gets away with this,” Wallace said.

White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders repeatedly defended Trump’s tweets. During a media briefing earlier in the day, she praised Trump as a tough counterpuncher who pushes back when media figures like Scarborough and Brzezinski criticize him.

Trump “fights fire with fire,” she said.

Read more from Yahoo News:

• GOP senators mull cutting tax break for wealthy

• How Mitch McConnell could revive the Senate health care bill

• Veterans need Medicaid too — and are speaking out against GOP health care bill

• Why Pelosi should go — and take the ’60s generation with her

• Photos: Yemen ‘facing worst cholera outbreak in the world,’ health organizations say