Trump retweets personal attacks on Clinton, Pelosi, Abrams

by Aris Folley - 05/24/20 9:08 PM ET

President Trump spent part of his Memorial Day weekend using his Twitter account to promote personal attacks on Democrats, retweeting posts that took aim at former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams’s appearance and another that called former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a “skank,” among others.

Several of the attacks Trump retweeted on Sunday came from former GOP congressional candidate John K. Stahl, who unsuccessfully ran in 2012 to represent California’s 52nd Congressional District.

In one tweet taking a swipe at Abrams’s appearance, later retweeted by Trump, Stahl wrote: “We just got a look at the official portrait for the self proclaimed Governor of Georgia. She fought a tough race, kissed a lot of babies and visited every buffet restaurant in the state. Joe will be a racist if he doesn’t pick her.”

The president also retweeted a post by Stahl that attacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calf.). “Anyone know what’s going on with PolyGrip? I’ve noticed lately that her face seems glossy and she is sporting a poorly marked 2nd set of eyebrows,” Stahl tweeted.

In a second tweet attacking Pelosi’s appearance that appeared on Trump’s Twitter feed over the weekend, Stahl took a shot at the Speaker’s teeth, claiming she wore dentures, and wrote that she drank alcohol “on the job.”

Another post from Stahl that Trump retweeted referred to Clinton, who ran against Trump in the 2016 presidential election, as “HRC the Skank.”

Stahl also targeted presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in a few posts that were shared by Trump, in which he referred to Biden as “Malarkey the Racist” and as one of the “three stooges on steroids.” The other two people Stahl refers to as stooges in the same post are Pelosi and Abrams.

According to The New York Times, this is not the first time Stahl has used sexist language in criticism targeting women on social media.

Stahl also reportedly once referred to MSNBC host Joy Reid as a “skank” on social media and called Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), another prominent woman of color, a “ho.”

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.

Over the weekend, Trump also used his account to promote an unfounded conspiracy theory around the 2001 death of Lori Klausutis, a woman who used to intern for MSNBC “Morning Joe” anchor Joe Scarborough while he served Florida as a GOP representative.

In one of the tweets, Trump called on his followers to read an article published by conservative website True Pundit that alleged evidence showed foul play in her death.

Trump was later criticized by Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) on Sunday for pushing the unfounded theory.

“Just stop. Stop spreading it, stop creating paranoia. It will destroy us,” Kinzinger wrote in a post retweeting Trump.

Trump also fielded criticism from Biden later on Sunday for the series of controversial retweets and posts.

“The presidency is about a lot more than tweeting from your golf cart,” Biden tweeted. “It requires taking on the ultimate responsibility for the biggest decisions in the world.”

“Donald Trump simply wasn’t prepared for that. I promise you I will be,” he continued.

The attacks by Trump comes as the latest data shows the country has racked up more than 97,600 deaths from the novel coronavirus as of Sunday. Though Trump did not specifically note the death toll in any of his tweets over the weekend, he expressed optimism about the country’s current handling of the pandemic in one tweet on Sunday.

“Cases, numbers and deaths are going down all over the Country!” he wrote.