White House defends Trump’s tweets: He’s been ‘attacked mercilessly’

White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders doubled down and defended President Donald Trump’s crude attack on "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski on Thursday, excusing it as Trump’s response to being “attacked mercilessly” on the show.

“The president has been attacked mercilessly on personal accounts by members on that program, and I think he's been very clear that when he gets attacked, he's going to hit back,” Sanders told reporters during the afternoon briefing.


“I think the American people elected somebody who's tough, who's smart, and who's a fighter, and that's Donald Trump,” she added. “And I don't think that it's a surprise to anybody that he fights fire with fire.”

Trump prompted widespread condemnation on Thursday morning after he went after Brzezinski on Twitter, calling her “crazy” and claiming that he had seen her “bleeding badly from a face-lift” at a New Year’s Eve party.

Several Republican lawmakers denounced the attack as inappropriate behavior for a president and called on Trump to stop.

Brzezinski, a Democrat, has been a vocal critic of Trump on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” though she and co-host Joe Scarborough have also met privately with the president and interviewed him on the program during the Republican primary. He reportedly also once offered to officiate their upcoming wedding.

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Democrats were quick to seize on the remarks, saying they are evidence that Trump is sexist and unworthy of the presidency.

Asked during the briefing what example the president is setting for men’streatment of women, Sanders dismissed the question.

“Look, everybody wants to make this an attack on a woman,” Sanders said. “What about the constant attacks that he receives or the rest of us? I'm a woman, and I've been attacked by this show multiple times, but I don't cry foul because of it. I think that, you know, you want to create this false narrative. One hand, it's like, ‘Let's treat everybody equally,’ and on the other hand, they attack, attack, attack, and he responds and apparently that's wrong.”

“I'm sorry, guys, I've answered this question,” she added, clearly exasperated by the repeated questions reporters asked on the topic.