December 13, 2017 02:06 PM UTC

What's It Going To Take, Denver Post?

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: USA TODAY’s editorial board shows ’em how it’s done:

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. 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…

It is a shock that only six Democratic senators are calling for our unstable president to resign.

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A Denver Post editorial published a short while ago today lambastes President Donald Trump over his Twitter attacks yesterday against Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, whom he salaciously claimed “would do anything” for donations–with ever-stronger rhetoric to suggest their patience with Trump is wearing thin:

President Donald Trump took his fevered debasement of the presidency to new lows Tuesday, attacking a U.S. senator on Twitter by suggesting she “would do anything” for campaign cash…

Trump made his claim after several of the women who have accused him of sexual assault in the past held a press conference on Monday to demand accountability, and Gillibrand called on him to resign.

The women’s decision to speak out again is reasonable. The world is different than it was more than a year ago. In the heightened awareness created by the #MeToo movement, we’ve seen many prominent men lose their jobs, including a Democratic senator and a pair of congressmen from both major parties.

There’s little to disagree with in these opening paragraphs. But then this editorial takes a strange turn, almost admitting to a huge contradiction in their approach to allegations of sexual misconduct against local politicos versus…well, anybody besides the President of the United States:

We find ourselves in surreal territory. The Denver Post editorial board has called on state lawmakers accused of sexual harassment to step down. We’ve railed against the slow progress elected officials at the state and national level are making to deal with harassment. Yet we blink when it comes to calling for Trump’s resignation, for he won his election after multiple claims of harassment were thoroughly reported and published, and then capped by Trump’s own bragging about grabbing women’s genitals captured in the infamous “Access Hollywood” video.

With so many asking the question, Trump should realize his good fortune and keep his silence…

Notwithstanding the fact that Donald Trump’s victory was in fact extremely narrow and controversial, losing the nationwide popular vote by millions and inspiring a movement of American women to collect the heads of Trump-style harassers at every level of government and popular culture since he’s taken office, it is nothing short of offensive to suggest that President Trump would experience “good fortune” in the present climate by “keeping his silence.” That may be true from the point of view of a harasser hoping to squeak out from under accountability, but it’s not a responsible suggestion for an editorial board to make to anyone.

Let Trump keep talking. Let everyone see it. And respond accordingly.

And that brings us to the question that truly matters. If the Post honestly believes the President is “debasing the presidency,” what will it take for them to join Sen. Gillibrand instead of just defending her–and call for Trump to resign? We’re not asking this rhetorically, we assume there is such a line. New allegations? New accusers? Some new outrage via Twitter?

It’s not like Trump carried this state. It’s safe in this case for the state’s newspaper of record to, you know, represent. And if not now then very soon, they ought to.