It has a name folks: “Moron-gate.”
And for the record, NBC’s sources were a little more specific than what was revealed in the original article:
What’s especially amusing about this, is that when the story first hit, the peanut gallery seemed inclined to dismiss it as something of the “nothing burger” variety. And it probably would have been just that – a “nothing burger.” But not when the “moron” in question has an ego the size of one of the golden monuments he’s built to himself all over the world. For Donald Trump, that story could “not stand – man.”
So what did the President do? Well, he forced Tillerson to hold an unscheduled press conference, that’s what he did. Don’t let anyone tell you that presser wasn’t Trump’s idea. You’ve got to think he insisted on it because again, he simply couldn’t suffer the slight. He even took to Twitter after the fact to demand a retraction:
The @NBCNews story has just been totally refuted by Sec. Tillerson and @VP Pence. It is #FakeNews. They should issue an apology to AMERICA!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 4, 2017
Of course the hilarious thing about the whole “totally refuted” bit there is that the part of the story that mattered – the “moron” bit – was not only not refuted, it was in effect confirmed when Tillerson refused to answer a straightforward question about it:
Reporter: Did you call Trump a moron?
Rex Tillerson: Um ?pic.twitter.com/8qPmpAWjcf
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) October 4, 2017
Let me be clear: the notion that someone in the administration might have wanted to resign at some point isn’t news. If you are a part of this administration and you haven’t thought about resigning at least once in the past nine months, then there is something profoundly wrong with you. Further, all the evidence suggests that Tillerson has thought about resigning quite a few times (more on that in our original post).
The news here is that the nation’s top diplomat thinks the President of the United States is a “f&*%ing moron.” That’s the news.
You can disagree with your boss without thinking he’s a moron. Indeed, you can even think your boss might be a racist without thinking he’s a complete moron. To be sure, there’s a certain sense in which anyone who is a bigot is moronic, but conceivably, you could be a racist and still be a good President if you could just manage to keep your bigotry under control for four years.
What you cannot do, however, is be a good President if you are a moron in the kind of way NBC’s sources suggested Tillerson meant – i.e. in that kind of general way where “moron” doesn’t apply to one undesirable character trait, but rather to everything that comes out of your mouth whenever you open it.
So that’s why it is disconcerting that Tillerson couldn’t, under pressure, definitively say that he has never once called Trump a moron.
The reason we’re bringing this back up (well, besides the fact that it’s the biggest story of the day) is because now, The Daily Beast is out reporting that Trump aides wanted Tillerson to resign. Here’s more:
As Secretary of State Rex Tillerson took to the microphones Wednesday morning to address reports that he had called his boss, President Donald Trump, a “f*%^ing moron,” aides in the White House held out hope that he would offer his resignation.
Tillerson didn’t deny having questioned the president’s intellectual capacities. But he insisted that he wasn’t going anywhere either, much to the chagrin of three White House officials who vented to The Daily Beast in real time about how they wished he would “just leave,” as one put it.
[…]
“In a perfect world” he would have quit right then and there, another said.
“People in [the White House] who are loyal to the president think Rex Tillerson hates [Trump],” one White House official told The Daily Beast.
There you go.
And then to add insult to insult, Bob Corker (who has previously questioned Trump’s sanity) said this:
Other people in the Trump administration have been undermining Sec. of State Rex Tillerson.
I think as a team Tillerson, Mattis and Kelly help separate us from chaos.
Simply put: if you believe Trump’s version of this story, well then you are a … [ask Rex Tillerson to fill in the blank for you].
So, name the source. This seems like bullshit to me.
that is obviously a nonsense comment.
“name the source”? who is going to go on record with that and allow their name to be published with this administration talking all day, every day about prosecuting “leakers”?
and by the way: if you’re looking for a name for the source on the original leak, maybe look this way —–> Steve Bannon.
The original claim is what is nonsense. Who cares what Tillerson said about Trump. People with strong personalities express themselves crudely at times. What counts is that the Trump administration has adopted a united front and the news souce involved has zero credibility. They can whine and bitch all they want, but Hillary still lost and Trump is still President. Any more fake news you’d like to promulgate???
Oh Yeah, fer sure! And I think you are also correct pointing the (middle) finger at Bannon. Do me a favor and just reprint my comment from your “Trump Is A Moron” article into this space! hahaha!
When I saw the clenched jaw on Tillerson as he briskly walked towards the microphone today, I was really nervous and thought, OMG he is gonna quit! And I did not take another breath until he made it clear he was not quitting.
You’re delusional.
I’ll not debate a guy with a closed mind. You keyboard warriors are all the same. We are facing real problems out there, and all you do is complain about Trump.
Puerto Rico is a real problem for 3-1/2 million American citizens. How did Trump face that problem? By golfing and tweeting about patriotic football players kneeling for those persecuted citizens who don’t have a voice. Trump is lucky to have Tillerson, even though faceless WH ‘Aides’ can’t abide an independent thinker, who is respected world-wide more than their boss.
Heisenberg cant name source…more fake news
This all happened 3rd week of July, right? So what caused it to all of a sudden become this huge issue today? WHO threw this out for debate today? and WHY?
Why? To get the news off Trumps fiasco in Puerto Rico and calls for Gun Control after the Los Vegas massacre by a white man
The real issue here is how a person that is truly qualified to be Secretary of State, was ‘so late to the party’ on understanding how limited Trump’s intellectual horsepower really is when – and that he classified Trump’s apparent intellectual abilities out loud. Apparently, Rex is still getting use to public life and that there are no loyal confidantes.
My question is whether Tillerson was being generous, insulting and or just stating the consensus and obvious. Tillerson called Trump a “fucking moron”. The “fucking” part is obvious in Trump’s numerous sexual abuse/”grab them by the pussy” related legal problems and of course that he has produced a number of offspring.
Trump and his followers should take comfort that Tillerson just called him a “moron” – “a discarded classification of mental retardation, having an intelligence quotient of 50 to 69.” Tillerson could have called Trump an “imbecile” – “a discarded classification of mental retardation, above the level of idiocy, having a mental age of seven or eight years and an intelligence quotient of 25 to 50.”
Trump’s daily disastrous and embarrassing discharge of the professional responsibilities of the Office of President – lead me to think that Tillerson was being overly generous.
yeah I mean this is so obvious at this point that it’s hard for me to understand how it’s even a partisan issue for people. for one thing, if you knew anything at all about Trump before the election you knew this was coming. but even if you didn’t and all you had to go on was the last nine months of experience, it is abundantly clear that he is a complete idiot. and here’s perhaps the most important part: for those of us who have followed Trump throughout his life, there is no question that the guy you see now is not the same Trump. he was always an idiot, but he’s quite clearly deteriorating in terms of mental capacity. and believe it or not, i actually mean that in as sympathetic a manner as I can muster for him. go back and watch an interview with him from 10 years ago or 20 years ago. this is not the same guy. again, he was never fit to be President, but the simple fact is that he is getting old, and that’s making things worse.
LOL so true! I suspect he was just boiling over with anger at something stupid trump had said…. remember when trump was sitting with the Israelis/Jerusalem (May 2017) and said he “had just got back from the middle east” – I believe he had been in Saudi Arabia the day before. The man has no clue about the world. I cannot imagine how that kind of stupidity frustrates a man like Tillerson.
Personally, I think trump is an imbecile.
Now I am wondering if trump stirred this all up today – another one of his duck and weave moves – since his princess Ivanka and her weird husband hit the national spotlight for some felony shenanigans they were pulling in selling property in NY — seems like the District Attorney “decided” he did not have enough evidence to bring charges…and that is suspicious timing in that he received $25K after meeting with one of trump’s lawyers. And that is just the beginning of that whole story that came out today. Timing is everything.
the short version, from The Week: http://theweek.com/speedreads/728743/ivanka-trump-donald-trump-jr-almost-charged-felony-2012
the whole story: https://www.propublica.org/article/ivanka-donald-trump-jr-close-to-being-charged-felony-fraud
So..dude..do YOU have something to say for yourself..???? That’sthe deal..quote and emote…
Pinelli: the comment posted directly above the quotes is the emote, Dude
Ha ha ha. A doctorate in engineering and you fell for a line of crap from a two-bit carnival barker. This will all be over eventually, Drumpf will claim the “Worst President in History” award from old Dubya, and hopefully, the Republican party will splinter apart for good. The GOP has never, and I mean never, passed one piece of legislation that has benefited the majority of Americans. Good riddance.
Its pleasant to hear the press, freely use the word “moron”, in respect of Trump.
If we really live in a multiverse, then I need to see the Clinton one. Which is more impared, moron or idiot? I used idiot a year ago and a lot since.