Republican news anchor rips GOP: "Permanently associated with misogyny" thanks to Trump

Now an anchor on MSNBC, Wallace rose to fame as a communications chief for President George W. Bush and then as senior adviser to John McCain’s presidential campaign in 2008. She basically made Sarah Palin — and her own reputation as a top Republican strategist.

But now she is blasting the party she once loved. Why? Because of Trump’s ongoing and blatant misogyny and her party’s unwillingness to hold him responsible for it, up to and including his Thursday morning Twitter melt down about “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski.

As a former WH comms director, my thoughts to the President’s tweets: https://t.co/hhDNMWeAmL

— Nicolle Wallace (@NicolleDWallace) June 29, 2017

Before I open this up to my table, a couple thoughts.

One: As a former communications director, there’s a single press secretary for this White House. It’s called an apology.

Two: As a woman who was fortunate enough to work in the White House as a public servant, all the women collecting paychecks from the U.S. taxpayers — Dina Powell, Kellyanne Conway, Elaine Chao, Betsy DeVos — you should all go on the record and condemn your boss’s comments. And you should work behind the scenes to educate him about just how offensive they are.

Three: As someone who once proudly called myself a Republican, the party will be permanently associated with misogyny if leaders don’t stand up and demand a retraction.

And finally: Most importantly, as the mother of a son, I ask any woman who’s defending these comments how they plan to raise good men if the most powerful man in the world gets away with this.

That last point might well be directed as Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the deputy press secretary who held Thursday’s White House press briefing and also happens to have a son.

Sanders did not apologize on Trump’s behalf. Instead, she went on offense against the media, insisting that since reporters attack Trump, he has a right to strike back.

“He was simply pushing back and defending himself,” she defiantly claimed.

Wallace is right, of course, and her fellow Republicans should listen to her. But so far, they’re simply following the already familiar routine of issuing statements of condemnation and then going right back to supporting Trump and his agenda.

That’s not good enough. American women deserve better than this from their president. And it’s up to the president’s own party to do something about it.