OPINION: Trump’s tweets are an indelible stain on the presidency

For the love of everything that is decent and good in this world, we must take a hard look at the person the country elected to be in the White House.  

This morning, Donald Trump, the president of the United States, the commander in chief and the supposed leader of the free world (though he gave up that mantle a while ago with his childish, unpresidential behavior on the international stage), tweeted a jaw-dropping insult to a well-known journalist, ridiculing her looks. Apparently, he was upset at the coverage she and her co-anchor of a morning news show had been giving him.  

{mosads}Donald Trump tweeted that she “was bleeding badly from a face-lift” when she was in Mar-a-Lago wanting to meet with him. He ends his tweet by saying of the meeting, “I said no.”

That is a lie. There are pictures of them together. She was not bleeding badly. She looked perfectly fine. 

There are no words. I am glad to see some outrage from Republicans — though it is not nearly enough. Republicans who support Donald Trump are enabling this behavior. Period. 

In response, Republicans will often say, “Well, he is just hitting back,” or “Um, I wouldn’t have said it that way,” or “Well, it was a poor choice of words.” For those who use these and other tired clichés to pivot to another subject they want to talk about while trying desperately to brush this under the rug — shame on you. You are as bad as he is.   

Let’s be honest. For the majority of Americans who did not vote for Trump and who do not, under any circumstances, support him, we are not surprised. Trump has never tried to hide who he is. He has always been open about what a putrid, egotistical, narcissistic, sexist, misogynist he is.

Mr. President, your tweet was beneath the office and represents what is wrong with American politics, not the greatness of America.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) June 29, 2017

He has been very clear about what he thinks of most women, which is not very much at all, except as objects to be desired, ogled and sexually accosted. As he once said, “When you’re a star they let you do it … you can do anything.”

In addition to those infamous Access Hollywood tapes where he bragged about committing sexual assault, how can we forget the 13 women who have come out and publicly accused him of inappropriate sexual advances and behaving in a sexually predatory manner? 

How can we forget how he publicly insulted Rosie O’Donnell, or how he would physically rate women’s bodies on the Howard Stern Show? Remember how he publicly insulted the looks of the one and only female Republican colleague who ran for president alongside him during the primaries?

The stories of Donald Trump’s indecency are legend, which is why anyone in their right mind knew he would not change in the Oval Office. Why would he? Who is pushing him to do so? Where is Ivanka Trump? Does she still support her father’s behavior? This is somebody who has prided herself in being a defender of women’s rights and of women’s empowerment. Where is she on this?

For the record, this is a picture of @MorningMika at Mar-a-Lago at the time Trump is claiming she was “bleeding badly.” pic.twitter.com/NJgioOD3Va

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) June 29, 2017

What about Melania? Is she still working on her anti-cyberbullying campaign? She should clean her own house before she preaches to anybody else on this issue. 

There is one thing Trump has always been right about: his base. Trump can do no wrong in their eyes. At a dismal 40 percent approval rating, the only ones left supporting him are the diehards who will be with him until the bitter end. 

So, it is up to Republicans in Congress and in other elected positions to say enough is enough! I commend the Republican women who are coming forward and publicly condemning, under no uncertain terms, what this president has brought upon the country. These are women in the Republican Party who may yet feel Trump’s wrath.  

This has to stop – we all have a job – 3 branches of gov’t and media. We don’t have to get along, but we must show respect and civility.

— Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) June 29, 2017

But I also suspect that these women, along with the legion of other decent men and women, are tired of having a 12-year-old bully in the body of a 71-year-old man in the White House — a man who says and does things that normal Americans would never get away with, nor should they.  

As a mother in the age of Trump, I am telling my 10-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son that the occupant of the White House is an anomaly. I’m telling them that he is a stain on our democracy and our history that we will have to work hard to wash off. But I’m also telling them that our institutions, our values and our country are greater and stronger than just one indecent, disgusting human being that accidentally won the highest office in the land.  

I tell my children that the brave men and women who stand up for our democracy every day, who fight for the well-being of their fellow Americans and who value and take care of each other, are the true faces of our country. Those are the people who they should emulate, not the pig in the Oval Office. 

Trump has done more to demean the office of the presidency in six months than anyone has in a generation. He proves every single day, with healthcare, immigration, education, foreign policy and almost every other issue he deals with, that he is out of his league, incredibly inept, wholly unprepared and temperamentally unfit to be president.  

Today, he proved once again that on top of all of that, he is a woeful, pathetic and indecent human being. 

The sad thing is that this is not only a reflection on Donald Trump. If we continue to accept and normalize this behavior, it is a reflection of who we are as a country. At the moment, it is not a good one.  

Maria Cardona is a principal at the Dewey Square Group, a Democratic strategist and a CNN/CNN Español political commentator. Follow her on Twitter @MariaTCardona.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.