President Donald Trump’s decision to use a slur for intellectually disabled people to attack one of his political opponents is sparking blowback — not from Democrats, but from some within his own corner of the political map.
During a CNN segment, conservative strategist Joseph Moreno, a military veteran and former federal prosecutor, didn’t sugarcoat his reaction to Trump calling Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz “seriously retarded” on Thanksgiving Day. Trump lobbed the insult while veering into a rant about Somali refugees in Minnesota, tying it all to the killing of National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom in Washington, D.C. earlier in the week.
Host Boris Sanchez, trying to lighten the mood, joked, “What happened to ‘Happy Thanksgiving.’” Moreno didn’t take the escape hatch.
“Boris, you’re putting your finger, honestly, on what’s so difficult to be a conservative-leaning citizen, who, my whole life has cherished vigorous, but respectful debate,” Moreno said. “And so when you see something like this, which is 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 admitted that even for someone who has spent years defending the conservative movement, Trump’s rhetoric forces an uncomfortable reckoning.
“And you have to take the big picture view. Do you think that we’re better off as a country now than we would be under a Biden or Harris administration? And is it worth putting up with a president that puts out messaging like this?” he continued. “It’s a tough one, and I’m not gonna pretend I know the answer to that.” (Watch the video below)
Moreno wasn’t alone. Earlier Friday, Indiana state senator Michael Bohacek said he would no longer support Trump’s push for a mid-decade redraw of House districts, citing the president’s “insulting and derogatory” remark. Bohacek was blunt about why the slur hit a nerve: his daughter has Down Syndrome.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration escalated its response to the Washington, D.C. shooting by announcing it would halt all asylum applications and immigration from underdeveloped countries. Authorities arrested 29-year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal and charged him with killing Beckstrom. Trump immediately blamed the incident on Joe Biden’s immigration policies — even though Lakanwal’s asylum application had been approved earlier this year by Trump’s own Department of Homeland Security.
Watch the segment below from CNN:
