White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham defended President Donald Trump’s attack on Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI), who’s grieving the death of her husband.
The Michigan Democrat voted to impeach the president, who complained to rally goers Wednesday night that he had ordered flags flown at half mast to honor the late Rep. John Dingell — and suggested the veteran lawmaker might be in hell.
“I gave him everything, I don’t want anything, I don’t need anything for anything,” Trump said. “She calls me up: ‘It’s the nicest thing that’s ever happened. Thank you so much. John would be so thrilled. He’s looking down. He’d be so thrilled. Thank you so much, sir.’ I said, ‘That’s OK, don’t worry about it.’”
“Maybe he’s looking up, I don’t know,” Trump added, to laughs and groans. “I don’t know. Maybe, but let’s assume he’s looking down.”
The White House at first told reporters to ask the president about his comments, but then justified them as a normal political attack and suggested he’d gotten caught up in the moment.
“The president is a counter-puncher,” Grisham said. “It was a very very supportive and wild crowd and he was just riffing on some of the things that had been happening the past few days.”
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