The Trump administration and media elites on Thursday found themselves in a seemingly never-ending series of political fights involving name-calling, demands for apologies, and claims that the other side is incapable of apologizing.
The frenzy reached crisis levels Thursday afternoon, but it began Tuesday when TV star Roseanne Barr compared a former President Barack Obama staffer to an ape, which led her show to be canceled.
Barr apologized, as did Disney CEO Bob Iger.
But that prompted President Trump to ask why Iger never apologized to him for airing “horrible” statements that were made about him on ABC News.
“Gee, he never called President Donald J. Trump to apologize for the HORRIBLE statements made and said about me on ABC,” Trump tweeted.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said several other apologies were never given to Trump.
“Where was Bob Iger’s apology to the White House staff for Jemele Hill calling the president and anyone associated with him a white supremacist?” Sanders asked Wednesday. “To Christians around the world for Joy Behar calling Christianity a mental illness? Where was the apology for Kathy Griffin going on a profane rant against the president on ‘The View’ after a photo showed her holding President Trump’s decapitated head?”
That turned it into a media fight. Soon afterward, CNN’s White House reporter Jim Acosta said it’s the White House that owes people an apology, not the media.
Acosta criticized Sanders for “coming out here and shaming the media and blaming us for making all sorts of comments that need apologies when they themselves owe the American people plenty of apologies for things that the president has said over the years.”
Wednesday night, another apology storm was brewing. After Ivanka Trump posed with a picture of her son on Monday, many criticized her for ignoring the plight of illegal immigrant families.
That crisis came to a head Wednesday night, when TBS’s Samantha Bee called Ivanka Trump a “feckless c–t.”
The White House demanded her show be taken off the air, just as Barr’s was. Bee apologized Thursday, but that led others to say the White House is hypocritical to ask for apologies when it wasn’t apologizing for all the bad things it does.
CNN’s Jake Tapper said if the White House wants an apology, it should see if Trump wants to apologize for being mean to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
If folks are in an apology-kind-of-mood, now might be a decent time for @POTUS and the @WhiteHouse to publicly apologize for all the hateful and cruel things they’ve said about @SenJohnMcCain.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) May 31, 2018
Hours before Tapper’s demand, however, “The View” host Meghan McCain said she didn’t think the White House was capable of apologizing for anything, including Trump’s criticism of her ailing father.
“Obviously I was promised an apology, Kelly Sadler, publicly to my family. I did not receive that,” McCain said. “This is not an administration that’s capable of apologizing.”
The Trump family was feeling the brunt of the several battles by late Thursday, when first lady Melania Trump’s spokeswoman said her and her family continue to face harsh criticisms, while the media only seems to want the apologies to flow from the White House, not to it.
“The double standard is truly astounding,” spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said. “Time and again the Trump family and members of this administration are subjected to false reporting, hateful rhetoric and outrageous lies all in the name of freedom of speech or comedy, yet the main stream media stays silent.”
