In yet another example of Donald Trump hearing something on television, then repeating it despite having no idea what he’s saying, the President hopped on Twitter this morning to join in with fellow conservatives attacking actress Debra Messing over a tweet from a few days ago.
It all began when media outlet The Hollywood Reporter published an article on August 29th about a fundraiser that Trump would be holding in Beverly Hills during Emmy week. Messing’s Will and Grace co-star Eric McCormack sent out a tweet that same day calling on the publication to “kindly report on everyone attending this event, so the rest of us can be clear about who we don’t wanna work with.”
Messing retweeted McCormack’s message, then tweeted one of her own:
Please print a list of all attendees please. The public has a right to know. https://t.co/YV4UoxrPHI
— Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) August 31, 2019
Such a list would already be public, but Messing wanted THR to compile it into an easy-to-access article that others could read and disseminate. She even explained herself right away:
I am proud to be a donor when I contribute to a campaign. I am happy to be listed when I attend a fundraiser. I am assuming anyone who donates to Trump’s fundraiser would feel the same. Why wouldn’t they?
— Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) September 1, 2019
But Republicans immediately complained on social media, calling her hateful and authoritarian and most problematically, conflating what she was calling for with a dangerous practice on the right called “doxxing,” in which a person’s private information — that is to say, not publicly available, such as full name, address, phone number, Social Security number, and other highly identifying factors — are published on the internet.
“Doxxing” has led to threats, harassment, and even physical harm for the victims. Publishing publicly available information in a list form is not doxxing, however. The right purposely conflates the two.
In fact, Trump heard a buzzword obviously and decided to run with it today: McCarthyism.
Bad “actress” Debra The Mess Messing is in hot water. She wants to create a “Blacklist” of Trump supporters, & is being accused of McCarthyism. Is also being accused of being a Racist because of the terrible things she said about blacks and mental illness. If Roseanne Barr….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2019
….said what she did, even being on a much higher rated show, she would have been thrown off television. Will Fake News NBC allow a McCarthy style Racist to continue? ABC fired Roseanne. Watch the double standard!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2019
McCarthyism, of course, refers to Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) and his campaign to label “subversives” in America during the Second Red Scare. McCarthy almost exclusively fabricated claims against anyone who spoke against him or his party, labeling them communists, and effectively “blacklisting” them from working in Hollywood due to producers’ fears of being associated with “un-American” acts.
Messing hasn’t leveled any false claims against anyone, and if the people on the list she’s called for were effectively “blacklisted,” it would be because producers didn’t want to work with Trump supporters, not because they’d been lied to and told the actors were spies for our global enemies.
Then Trump went off on Messing over a tweet that she “liked” on Twitter which showed a church sign that read “A black vote for Trump is mental illness.” The sign was lettered by the pastor of the church in question, Michael Jordan, who is black.
Due to public pressure, Messing apologized for “liking” the tweet almost immediately, although there was of course nothing wrong with the tweet or with her clicking her approval of it.
This whole debacle is yet another example of Donald Trump projecting his own behavior onto others: He has called for lists of multiple demographics of people including liberals, Muslims, and even actors who have run afoul of his own preferences, called for her to be fired for her politics IN THIS TWEET, and has displayed FAR more racism than even any prominent figure in America, let alone a President, in half a century.
Featured image via Wikimedia Commons composite
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