"A president who would all but call Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand a whore is not fit to clean the toilets in the Barack Obama Presidential Library or to shine the shoes of George W. Bush."
That's the key takeaway from an editorial posted Tuesday (Dec. 12) on the USA Today website under the headline "Will Trump's lows ever hit rock bottom?"
The national newspaper's editorial board was responding to President Donald Trump's tweet attacking U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand after she had tweeted out her call for his resignation.
Trump's words -- "'begging' for campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them)" -- were widely criticized as sexually suggestive and demeaning, although the White House denied there was anything sexually inappropriate about the post.
Gillibrand said it was hard to interpret it any other way.
"Certainly that's how I and many people read it," she said. "It was a sexist smear, intended to silence me."
The USA Today editorial pages, which are not considered as liberal as The New York Times' viewpoint but still "left leaning," didn't pull any punches in going after the president.
"With his latest tweet, clearly implying that a United States senator would trade sexual favors for campaign cash, President Trump has shown he is not fit for office," the unsigned editorial says. "Rock bottom is no impediment for a president who can always find room for a new low."
The newspaper pointed out that its objections were more about decency than politics.
"This isn't about the policy differences we have with all presidents or our disappointment in some of their decisions. Obama and Bush both failed in many ways," the editorial board says. "They broke promises and told untruths, but the basic decency of each man was never in doubt.
"Donald Trump, the man, on the other hand, is uniquely awful. His sickening behavior is corrosive to the enterprise of a shared governance based on common values and the consent of the governed."
The newspaper went on to say that "It is a shock that only six Democratic senators are calling for our unstable president to resign.
"The nation doesn't seek nor expect perfect presidents, and some have certainly been deeply flawed. But a president who shows such disrespect for the truth, for ethics, for the basic duties of the job and for decency toward others fails at the very essence of what has always made America great."
An unscientific poll at the end of the editorial says that 79 percent of those responding "strongly agree" with the opinion expressed and another 3 percent "agree." Almost 16 percent "strongly disagree" and almost 2 percent "disagree."
The editorial is certainly strongly worded, but unless I missed it, it seems to stop short of its own call for Trump to resign. Although, it's pretty clear USA Today doesn't think that he is qualified for even menial tasks.
