What to Know
President Donald Trump is facing a backlash from many over the use of a slur for people with intellectual disabilities to describe Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in a post of Truth Social on Thanksgiving.
But some of his supporters have also cheered him on in social media posts.
Mediaite reported Friday that during a segment on CNN, Joseph Moreno — a conservative military veteran and former federal prosecutor — lamented that Trump called Walz, a Democrat, “seriously r****ed” on Thanksgiving Day. Trump insulted the Minnesota governor in the middle of a rant about Somali refugees in his state, in comments in the wake of National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom being fatally shot in Washington D.C. this week.
In response to host Boris Sanchez, Moreno called the slur “absolutely indefensible, and you’re sitting at the Thanksgiving table, and your family and friends say, ‘How can you possibly support an administration that comes out with messages like this?’ It’s not easy.”
Moreno wasn’t the only conservative who was put off by Trump’s comment.
Earlier on Friday, Indiana state senator Michael Bohacek announced that he would not be supporting the president’s push for mid-decade redrawing of U.S. House district boundaries due to his “insulting and derogatory” remarks.
Bohacek noted that he was particularly sensitive to the intellectually disabled community given that his daughter has Down Syndrome.
Walz himself hit back on Friday, The Hill reported.
“Release the MRI results,” Walz wrote on the social platform X. Trump said last month that he underwent an MRI as part of a visit to Walter Reed Military Center, but the White House has not revealed the results of the scan.
The Atlanta Black Star called Trump’s Thanksgiving post “shocking,” “even by his standard.”
The Black Star stated the post “was filled with hateful accusations and racist rhetoric about Black immigrants and people of color from ‘third-world’ nations.
“The message was filled with anything but the traditional holiday spirit Americans have been accustomed to from the leader of the free world,” the publication said.
Reality Tea’s Joe Lefevre raised the question of whether the president’s rants could be signs of cognitive decline, pointing back to Walz calling for the release of Trump’s MRI.
But the president had plenty of support on X:
Republican Party of Calumet County, @Calumet GOP posted “Walz has intellectual disabilities. And the Somali’s were no refugees. They lied on their asylum claims, they have defrauded actual US Citizens of billions in their fraudelnt schemes. Lets just get them back home to Somalia, where lies and theft are part of everyday Somalia.”
Alabama resident Ron Creque, @CrequeSr, posted “Love it!! Any person who puts tampons in a man’s bathroom is “retarded”! It refers to one who is developmentally disabled, cognitively impaired or intellectually disabled. Walz is all of that!! Accurate description!!”
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Scott Turner
al.com
(TNS)
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