Rosie O’Donnell has sounded off against her long-time rival, President Donald Trump, and those she claims are enabling his “disgraceful” behavior.
Reacting to a viral clip of the president berating a female reporter as “stupid” on Thursday, O’Donnell said that White House journalists need to push back on Trump’s personal attacks.
“A decent person would stand up in spite of their job and say ‘I will not sit here and watch you verbally assault and attack and rape a woman,’” O’Donnell said.
“Open your goddamn mouths and save your souls because you’re going to have to live with yourself long after he is gone,” she added.
The 63-year-old comedian was speaking to former CNN anchor Jim Acosta on his online show, responding to the lashing Trump gave CBS News’ chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes during a press briefing at Mar-a-Lago on Thanksgiving.
“Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person?” Trump spat after she pushed back on his claims that Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the 29-year-old Afghan national who is suspected of shooting two National Guard members in D.C. on Wednesday, had not been vetted for entry into the United States.
It’s the third time in recent weeks that Trump has aggressively lashed out at reporters, all of whom have been female, calling them “ugly,” “stupid,” and “piggy.”
O’Donnell theorized that Trump’s aggressive attacks on female reporters is because of “a thing called dementia.”
Given this alleged illness and declining mental condition, O’Donnell argued that responsibility for Trump’s behavior really rests on the structures that prop him up. She argued that championing Trump has eroded public decency.
“What happened to decency?” O’Donnell asked. “What happened to someone standing next to that woman saying ‘Did you just call her stupid? Did you just call her stupid, President of the United States?’”
“He’s a disgrace,” she said.
Acosta, who served as CNN’s chief White House correspondent from 2007 until January of this year, is famous for calling out Trump’s exaggerations.
He suggested that reporters don’t do the same because they have been instructed to endure it in order to remain in the press pack.
“Well, that is a disservice to everyone, to the soul of every person forced to eat it,” O’Donnell replied.
“You’re telling me that we have to swallow this behavior from a madman, because we can’t figure out as a nation how to right all the wrongs that have occurred?”
The former host of The Rosie O’Donnell Show has a history of clashing with Trump following a 2006 spat over a Miss USA contestant.
While they have regularly traded barbs since then, the president escalated their simmering conflict in July by threatening to revoke her citizenship. O’Donnell relocated to Ireland in January just before Trump returned to the White House.
“We’re going to have to deal with him,” she added, because “this is what will continue.”
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