President Donald Trump's pattern of bullying and violence inciting rhetoric was directly blamed by a Republican strategist for the loss of civility in America.
Conservative commentator and Republican Women for Progress board member Ashley Pratte joined MSNBC anchor Alex Witt on Saturday to discuss a shocking video by Scott Wagner, the GOP gubernatorial nominee in Pennsylvania, who threatened sitting Governor Tom Wolf that he was "going to stomp all over your face with golf spikes."
Wagner deleted the video after public backlash, but later on Friday a mob of alt-right "Proud Boys" went on a brutal rampage outside New York's Metropolitan Republican Club.
After showing the alarming video by Wagner, who has spent more than $10 million of his own money trying to unseat Gov. Wolf, the MSNBC host noted that, "my kids would get a time-out if they said anything like that."
"Golf spikes, really?" Pratte asked. "Is this the point where we're at, we're going to act at such a way that is violent?"
"I don't think this is okay, what are we teaching or kids if we say this type of rhetoric is okay?" she wondered. "But again, it's one that's embraced by the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and his tweets often show that this type of rhetoric is going to be accepted and acknowledged by the American people as a new normal."
"Does this all start at the top?" the host asked. "Is it something that's gotten exponentially worse under this president?"
"Yes," Pratte replied.
"I can't even tell you the amount of criticism that has been violent, negative, nasty, degrading toward me -- as a female -- who has been an outspoken critic of this administration, because of this type of language and hypocrisy," she explained. "I'm told to get back into the kitchen, I'm told not to vote, I am told -- they comment on my looks."
"This type of bullying, I think, is completely and utterly atrocious -- and it does start at the top," she added.
"Melania Trump came out and said she's one of the most bullied women in America, and I want to say her husband is the biggest bully in America," she argued. "If she's going to take a tough stance on bullying, she needs to be honest with herself and realize this type of rhetoric is allowed by her husband and he's the leader of our country."
"What message does that send to our kids and future political candidates?" she asked.
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