Former Bush official Nicolle Wallace urges White House women to 'go on the record and condemn' Trump's comments


In the wake of President Trump's virulently sexist Twitter attack on Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski on Thursday, MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace urged the White House and its female leaders to stand up to their boss.
"There's a single press strategy for this White House: It's called an apology," said Wallace, who served as the communications director under former President George W. Bush, at the top of her Thursday afternoon show. "All the women collecting paychecks from the U.S. taxpayers — Dina Powell, Kellyanne Conway, Elaine Chao, Betsy DeVos — you should all go on the record and condemn your boss' comments, and you should work behind the scenes to educate him about just how offensive they are."
Wallace also warned Republicans standing on the sidelines that their party "will be permanently associated with misogyny if leaders don't stand up and demand a retraction." Finally, she asked women who are wont to defend the president's remarks "how they plan to raise good men if the most powerful man in the world gets away with this."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
When asked about the president's tweets, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump was simply fighting "fire with fire" and said she did not feel his remarks were inappropriate. "I think the American people elected someone who's smart, who's tough, who's a fighter, and that's Donald Trump," Sanders said.
Watch Wallace's impassioned speech below. Kimberly Alters
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kimberly Alters is the news editor at TheWeek.com. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
-
June 28 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Saturday's political cartoons include stupid wars, a critical media, and mask standards
-
Thai fish pie with crispy turmeric potatoes recipe
The Week Recommends Tasty twist on the Lancashire hot pot is given a golden glow
-
Palestine Action: protesters or terrorists?
Talking Point Damaging RAF equipment at Brize Norton blurs line between activism and sabotage, but proscription is a drastic step
-
Canadian man dies in ICE custody
Speed Read A Canadian citizen with permanent US residency died at a federal detention center in Miami
-
GOP races to revise megabill after Senate rulings
Speed Read A Senate parliamentarian ruled that several changes to Medicaid included in Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" were not permissible
-
Supreme Court lets states ax Planned Parenthood funds
Speed Read The court ruled that Planned Parenthood cannot sue South Carolina over the state's effort to deny it funding
-
Trump plans Iran talks, insists nuke threat gone
Speed Read 'The war is done' and 'we destroyed the nuclear,' said President Trump
-
Trump embraces NATO after budget vow, charm offensive
Speed Read The president reversed course on his longstanding skepticism of the trans-Atlantic military alliance
-
Trump judge pick told DOJ to defy courts, lawyer says
Speed Read Emil Bove, a top Justice Department official nominated by Trump for a lifetime seat, stands accused of encouraging government lawyers to mislead the courts and defy judicial orders
-
Mamdani upsets Cuomo in NYC mayoral primary
Speed Read Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani beat out Andrew Cuomo in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary
-
Supreme Court clears third-country deportations
Speed Read The court allowed Trump to temporarily resume deporting migrants to countries they aren't from