December 19, 2019 10:00 AM UTC

Trump Goes Even Lower

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

NBC News:

Republicans are calling on President Donald Trump to apologize for a macabre quip about the late Democratic Rep. John Dingell at his rally in Michigan on Wednesday night, suggesting that Dingell was “looking up” from hell.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a top Trump ally, and two House Republicans from Michigan called for the never-penitent president to say he’s sorry. “If he said that I think he should apologize,” Graham told reporters Thursday morning. He said he hadn’t seen the remarks, but “that would be a bad thing to say.” “John Dingell is a fine, fine man,” Graham said.

Dingell’s widow, Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., responded on Twitter, saying: “I’m preparing for the first holiday season without the man I love. You brought me down in a way you can never imagine.”

When President Donald Trump said the words “maybe he’s looking up” instead of looking down in reference to the late Rep. John Dingell’s final spiritual destination, there was a momentary pause followed by a mix of cheering and what seemed to be at least some amount of astonished gasping–and as always, in our continuing presumption of some measure of decency in even the most polarized Americans, we’d like to believe that the shocked reaction from conscientious attendees was authentic and not momentary.

As for outrage, yes. Of course it is. Perhaps even Cory Gardner will work up the nerve to say so.