'Some things should be off-limits': Dingell calls for civility after Trump's attack on late husband

William Cummings | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Donald Trump implies late Rep. John Dingell is 'looking up' from hell President Donald Trump suggested late Rep. John Dingell was "looking up" from hell at a Michigan rally.

Rep. Debbie Dingell called for increased civility in American political debate and said "some things should be off-limits" a day after President Donald Trump railed against her vote for his impeachment at a political rally where he implied her late husband, John, one of the longest-serving members of Congress, might be in hell.

Speaking to a crowd of supporters in Battle Creek, Michigan, on Wednesday night as the House voted to approve two articles of impeachment against him, Trump indicated he thought Dingell was unappreciative of the "A-plus treatment" he offered to honor her husband after his death.

"I don't want to politicize my husband. I don't want to politicize his death," the Michigan Democrat told CNN Thursday morning when asked if she thought Trump owed her an apology. "It is still something that I'm really grieving over."

She said these holidays are the first without her husband, who died in February, and they've already been difficult.

"But I'm going to go back to doing my job, and doing a good job, for the people of my district," she said.

"I try to be respectful of everybody. I've never taken a personal shot at this president. I think his family is off-limits," Dingell said.

Trump on Dingell: Donald Trump takes shot at U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, her husband John at rally

She said she was "very grateful" that the president lowered flags for her husband but said the longtime congressman "earned his burial at Arlington Cemetery because he's a World War II veteran."

She said she was with Republican friends when Trump made his remarks, saying, "They were all there for me."

"We need to all start remembering we're all Americans first and work to protect this democracy," she said, citing the negative effects of social media that are "allowing us to say things that are out of bounds."

"The rhetoric, the bullying, the viciousness isn't OK, and there are too many people across this country that are beginning to think that it is OK," she said.

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Several of Dingell's colleagues expressed support for her Thursday and called on Trump to apologize.

"I’ve always looked up to John Dingell – my good friend and a great Michigan legend," tweeted Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich.

"There was no need to 'dis' him in a crass political way. Most unfortunate and an apology is due," said Upton, who has criticized Trump on a number of occasions, including his tweets telling four Democratic congresswomen to "go back" to their countries of origin.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked people to pray for the president after his attacks on the Dingells, which reminded her of his screed against the late Sen. John McCain that his supporters "just overlooked."

"What the president misunderstands is that cruelty is not wit," Pelosi said. "Just because he gets a laugh for saying the cruel things that he says doesn't mean he's funny. It's not funny at all. It’s very sad."

Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., did not share Dingell's reluctance to hit back at Trump.

"It's moments like these that we are reminded that the president is not only a criminal, he is implusively cruel and truly rotten to the core. Hell will be too good for him," Yarmuth said in a tweet.

It's moments like these that we are reminded that the president is not only a criminal, he is implusively cruel and truly rotten to the core. Hell will be too good for him. https://t.co/AMZTAihjNh — Rep. John Yarmuth (@RepJohnYarmuth) December 19, 2019

During her CNN interview, Dingell fact-checked some of the claims Trump made in his attack. He said "she called me up" to thank him and say how happy her husband would have been. She said Trump called her.

Trump claimed that in addition to asking that flags be lowered to half-staff after John Dingell died, he offered to have the late congressman lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda. His body wasn't placed in the rotunda, and the decision to do so would have been up to Congress, not the president.

"I didn't want anything that was out of the ordinary," Debbie Dingell said.

Contributing: Christal Hayes, USA TODAY; Kathleen Gray, Detroit Free Press

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