Michigan Rep. Debbie Dingell expressed optimism that something positive could come from President Trump’s widely condemned remarks about her late husband, Rep. John Dingell.
Trump, while speaking at a rally in Battle Creek, Michigan, on Wednesday, speculated that the late Dingell might be in hell. The Democratic congresswoman addressed the president’s remarks and said she hoped for a positive outcome from the entire debacle during a Thursday afternoon appearance on Your World With Neil Cavuto.
Cavuto began by characterizing the president’s remarks as “beyond offensive, beyond cruel, beyond mean, certainly not in the character of our nation or the season.”
“First of all, thank you for saying that. Look, it is the holidays,” the congresswoman responded. “I think Thanksgiving was very hard and this Christmas is very hard. Those remarks made it harder, because I miss John very much. I am sort of hoping that something good comes out of this and that people will take a deep breath and realize that words can hit people hard. Words have consequences. And that the tone of rhetoric in this country should be bothering people. Maybe we could take a deep breath and remember we could be kinder to each other.”
Dingell added: “The president can say whatever he wants to me. I’m a grown woman. You get in some pretty intense battles. … But saying that somebody or implying that somebody’s in hell, it’s disturbing on a good day. And when you’re still grieving and a family is still going through a difficult time, we need to all watch what we say and be aware of how we are saying it.”
At the president’s rally, Trump claimed that Dingell was very gracious after he honored her husband by allowing his body to lie in state in the Capitol rotunda during his funeral service. But the late congressman never laid in the Capitol. His funeral was held in the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Washington, D.C., in February.
“She calls me up. ‘It’s the nicest thing that’s ever happened. Thank you, John would be so thrilled. He’s looking down. He would be so thrilled,'” Trump said, acting out the conversation he had with Dingell.
Marie Bartiromo also apologized to Dingell over the president’s remarks when Dingell appeared on Fox Business earlier in the day.
