Megan Murphy: Trump's sexist treatment of Irish reporter “is offensive on every level” and “he owes her an apology”

Bloomberg Businessweek's Murphy: “We need to draw the line; it's become a war against us and against the press”

From the June 28 edition of MSNBC’s MSNBC Live:

Video file

STEPHANIE RUHLE (HOST): All right, I have to, have to share with you the bizarre exchange President Trump had yesterday with a female reporter who came to the White House. She was in the Oval Office. Can you just look at this for a minute?

[BEGIN VIDEO]

DONALD TRUMP: Come here, come here. Where are you from? We have all of this beautiful Irish press. Where are you from?

CAITRIONA PERRY: I'm from RTÉ News.

[CROSSTALK]

TRUMP: Caitriona Perry. She has a nice smile on her face, so I bet she treats you well.

[END VIDEO]

RUHLE: What? Megan Murphy.

MEGAN MURPHY: I don't even know where to begin with that. First of all, that's a major broadcaster in Ireland, it's the equivalent of the BBC. This is an incredibly respected reporter. It's offensive as a woman, it’s offensive as a journalist.

RUHLE: [Deputy national security adviser for strategy] Dina Powell is sitting across from the president.

MURPHY: This kind of behavior, you said earlier, he's addicted to winning. I'm addicted to winning too. I'm not a child. He’s the president. He should know how to behave. He owes her an apology. He -- look, we deal with this every day, whether it’s press briefings that aren’t broadcast, whether this criticism of the press for so-called “fake news.” We saw an eruption again in the briefing yesterday. This is the entire attitude towards the fourth estate that marginalizes us, that makes us feel like we don't have the responsibility that we have to bring the truth, the news, to the people. It's the latest in an incident, we need to draw the line; it's become a war against us and against the press. It's time that this kind of behavior stops. That is offensive on every level. But the overall approach the administration has taken toward the media is incredibly offensive.

RUHLE: But who? Who is going to be the person to stop the president from behaving this way? I mean, you're two minutes away from Hef saying, “And why don't you sit down and pose for a picture in the big chair, honey?”

MIKE LUPICA: No, no. An old Italian grandmother once said to me, “If you're born round, you don't die square.” OK. And that was an example of this yesterday. And maybe the next time [White House deputy press secretary] Sarah Huckabee Sanders is lecturing us about the news media, she can weigh in about what she saw there yesterday.

RUHLE: No bueno, señor, no bueno.

Related:

BBC: Sexist or nice? Donald Trump interrupts call to compliment reporter

Previously:

Reporter who challenged the deputy press secretary says the Trump administration is “bullying” reporters

The Trump Administration's War On The Press