After ‘bleeding facelift’ incident, Donald Trump and Sarah Huckabee Sanders must both resign
Donald Trump took a flying leap so far off the deep end of decency yesterday that it was shockingly grotesque even by his nonexistent standards. To say that he should resign over it is to say that water is wet; it’s just that obvious. But as Trump sinks deeper and drags America into the abyss, there’s a wider problem here: those around him who are still willing to help him pull it off. In this instance I’m talking about you, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
After Donald Trump viciously attacked Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski by insisting that she showed up to his resort while bleeding from a facelift, even members of Congress from his own Republican Party were quick to publicly condemn him. They’re not willing to censure or impeach him for it, because they’re still looking at his sinking approval rating and hoping they can milk one or two more pieces of major legislation out of him before they have to throw him overboard. They’re opportunistic enablers in general, but at least they had the fraction of decency to publicly draw a symbolic line today. But there was one prominent voice who loudly and snidely defended Trump after his filthy attack.
Yes, it’s the job of the White House Press Secretary, or the Deputy Press Secretary, or whatever Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ title might be this week, to go out there and be the President’s spokesperson. It’s not her job to publicly criticize Donald Trump, not even when he’s wrong. But there’s a line. She didn’t have to go out there yesterday and specifically defend his indefensible tweet. She could have danced around it, avoided putting her stamp on it one way or the other. Instead she used it as an opportunity to further ingratiate herself with Trump by defending his attack on Brzezinski. And in so doing, she actively encouraged him to pull more stunts like this one.
For that reason alone, when we call for Donald Trump to resign over the ‘bleeding facelift’ incident, we should demand that Sarah Huckabee Sanders resign as well. And that goes for any other member of the Trump administration who ends up trying to defend Trump on this matter. Trump’s senior staff needs to be held as thoroughly responsible for his behavior as he does. If you’re a regular reader, feel free to support Palmer Report
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report