“Punching-down” reacting to someone below your “rank” or “status level.” It generally backfires, as it places more notice on the comments of the person “below”, giving them increased credibility. In twitter talk its called feeding the trolls, answering the slurs of an attacker with very few followers.
In politics it happens when a president or presidential candidate starts going after the media. Before he took office Barack Obama went off on Sean Hannity and Fox News. Donald Trump goes after female reporters. For example this was published by the Washington Post, its a list of the insults Trump has thrown at female reporters:
The list of female journalists and commentators who’ve been verbally roughed up by Trump include Associated Press reporter Jill Colvin (“one of the truly bad reporters”); New York Times reporters Amy Chozick and Maggie Haberman (“third-rate reporters”); CNN pundits S.E. Cupp and Ana Navarro (“two of the dumbest people in politics”); Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington (“liberal clown”); Forbes writer Clare O’Connor (“dummy”); MSNBC reporter Kasie Hunt (“poor and purposely inaccurate reporting”); CNN host Alisyn Camerota (“disaster”); Washington Post blogger Jennifer Rubin (“one of the dumber bloggers”); NPR’s Cokie Roberts (“kooky”); NBC News reporter Katy Tur (“Dishonest!”); and CNN reporter Sara Murray (“absolutely terrible”).
New York Times writer Gail Collins detailed an unfortunate episode with Trump in a Times op-ed, writing, “During one down period, I referred to him in print as a ‘financially embattled thousandaire’ and he sent me a copy of the column with my picture circled and ‘The Face of a Dog!’ written over it.”
Beyond that we have Megyn Kelly who he called a bimbo. Are there female reporters Donald Trump doesn’t disparage? It has to be more than a fear of intelligent successful women, but perhaps it’s not just reporters, Trump has been accused of sexism by Apprentice contestants:
Mahsa Saeidi-Azcuy, a former Brooklyn assistant district attorney who was “fired” from NBC’s business game show last Thursday — after first being forced out of her day job for not disclosing her stint on the NBC program — charged that Trump lavishes attention on the women contestants he finds attractive, makes sexist remarks, and asks the male contestants to rate the women.
“So much of the boardroom discussion concerned the appearance of the female contestants — discussing the female contestants’ looks — who he found to be hot,” Saeidi-Azcuy alleged.
“He asked the men to rate the women — he went down the line and asked the guys, ‘Who’s the most beautiful on the women’s team?’ ”
Gene Folkes, a 46-year-old financial adviser who spent a decade in the US Air Force, said he was one of the male contestants who began to squirm when the real-estate magnate turned the subject to the women’s appearance.
“I think it was most uncomfortable when he had one [female] contestant come around the board table and twirl around,” Folkes said.
Remember what he said about Carly Fiorina?
Look at that face. Would anybody vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?! I mean, she’s a woman, and I’m not s’posedta say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?
So what is it with Donald Trump? Does he hate female reporters or all successful women? Or just everybody.
Donald Trump has shown himself to be disparaging to everybody. He’s nothing but a bully who believes that he is entitled to push every around everyone who disagrees with him. And over the past few days I learned that many of his supporters can be just as vile. Instead of rational discussion with people trying to work out their differences, Trump and his supporters make personal attacks. Their venom s is so bad that even some of his opponents fear his wrath.
Can someone who treats people with such an aggressive arrogance really fight for “common” Americans? IMHO the answer is no, he will try to bully America the same way he is trying to bully Cheri Jacobus, and all the women named above. If you check his twitter feed regularly –dozens of others.
This is not a unifier. Donald Trump is the second coming of Barack Obama. A thin-skinned egotist who lashes out at just about everybody. It’s called “punching-down” Obama does it, Trump does it and it’s the signature of a lousy president.
