Monday on MSNBC, former Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign director of communications Jennifer Palmieri said President Donald Trump’s retweet of an animated gif that shows him knocking down Hillary Clinton with a golf ball was “promoting violence against women.”

Palmieri said, “I thought it was both appalling and revealing about his state of mind. And it’s appalling because it is making, you know — let alone being unable to let go of the election, but promoting violence. You know, that is promoting violence against women from the president of the United States.”

She continued, “You can disagree with Hillary Clinton on policy, you can think she makes mistakes, but the hatred that surrounds her is irrational. And I think that’s a—that is one of the things that’s positive about her writing this book is that we are able to step back and, you know, outside of the heat of the campaign, without any sort of electoral stakes at hand, and consider why that is. And she’s just been this lightning rod her whole adult life, and I think it is because she’s always—whatever role she’s been in, from when she was a young woman, to the first lady, to a presidential candidate, she’s challenged the way we thought about women. And that vexes people. And it doesn’t mean everybody is sexist or everyone is a misogynist, we’re just not sure what to make of her. Because there’s no role model. There’s no—there’s nothing we can refer back to. And so people are suspicious about her. Well, why is that? Why is she doing this? Why does she want this job? And you know, that’s something we all have to wrestle with.”

She added, “And I—again, I don’t think that means everybody is a sexist, but then you do have these moments of blatant, gross misogyny that, you know, at the hands of the president of the United States, it’s—it just couldn’t be more distressing, but I think, you know, women and Americans of all gender that—both genders that are concerned about this and look—look at this moment as something to learn from and to call out, not just as beneath the dignity of the president of the United States, but as actually promoting and-and promoting violence against women.”

(h/t Grabien)

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN