‘Dog’ tweet just par for the course for this boorish president

It’s beyond outrage. It is saddening, sickening and downright frightening.

The president of the United States called a woman a dog in his latest rant against former White House official and “Celebrity Apprentice” star Omarosa Manigault Newman. 

Don’t get me wrong: I don’t like Omarosa. I don’t respect her, and I think she is a self-serving, manipulative opportunist. She is cut from the same cloth as Donald Trump. They deserve each other.  

{mosads}The fact that she recorded audio — and, who knows, maybe even video — of her conversations inside the White House with several staff members and with Trump himself should be a test of legality and ethics at the White House.

It also is a huge issue of national security since staff are not allowed to use listening devices in the White House, let alone in the sacred chamber of the Situation Room.

Who else is recording whom over there? And to whom will they make those tapes available? The White House has been compromised and so has the president of the United States. This weakens the country and should scare us all. 

What will Republicans do about this? You remember when Republicans were so concerned about national security that they practically lit their hair on fire because of Hillary Clinton’s emails? 

When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn’t work out. Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2018

Now we hear about the president and/or his top aides being recorded, White House staff using private email accounts and the president using unsecure devices to communicate with outsiders. Where are those same Republicans with their outrage?

The thing is, no matter how much you might disapprove of Omarosa’s behavior, it does not negate the unacceptable behavior of the president of the United States, the commander in chief of the greatest country on earth and the “leader of the free world.”

The president and the presidency should be bigger than the pettiness that Donald Trump is displaying. Someone in his position should not be officially ranting in an official White House tweet that calls a woman a “dog.” This is not normal behavior. This is unhinged; this is disturbing. This is beyond outrage.

Yet, sadly, it is par for the course for this unfit president. He has attacked people of color incessantly, calling them “low I.Q.,” “not smart,” “sons of bitches,” “criminals and rapists,” “gang members” and “infestations.”

Americans are rightly outraged. It is the reason why Trump still has low approval numbers and historically high disapproval numbers. Majorities of Americans do not think he is fit for office, and let’s not forget that a majority of Americans did not vote for him. 

Wacky Omarosa, who got fired 3 times on the Apprentice, now got fired for the last time. She never made it, never will. She begged me for a job, tears in her eyes, I said Ok. People in the White House hated her. She was vicious, but not smart. I would rarely see her but heard….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2018

He is even more unpopular than Richard Nixon was on the eve of his resignation.

But none of this matters much — and nothing will change — until one of two things happens: Either Republicans will get a conscience and do the right thing, or those same Republicans will be voted out of office in November.  

So Republicans, where are you? The silence is deafening. Can you imagine if it had been a Democratic president calling a woman a dog or caught on tape or caught using unsecure devices to communicate? We already would have started impeachment proceedings.

But this is Donald Trump, the man who has single-handedly taken over the Republican Party, emasculated its leaders, taken away their backbones (if they ever had any) and bent them all to his will.  

America, the president of the United States called a woman a dog. Let’s allow that to sink in. Sure, his supporters will say that he has done this before — and he has. But not as president.

The president has crossed many lines of decency, civility and humanity. It happens practically daily. And it happens with impunity.  

Well, enough is enough, America. We are better than this. We know the president isn’t better than this, but we are. We deserve better but, clearly, will not get it from this president or from these Republicans.  

Come November, let’s show our children who we really are; if not for us, then let’s do it for them. They do not deserve a country whose commander in chief weakens, sickens, saddens and disappoints us at every turn.

Our children deserve a president to whom they can look up to. Donald Trump is anything but.

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.