Trump’s Attack on Mika Brzezinski Draws Rebukes Across a Fractious Media<br />The message spoke to a growing sense among journalists<br />that they must unite against the anti-press barrage from Mr. Trump and his aides, particularly after a week where Ms. Sanders, at the White House lectern, encouraged Americans to watch an anti-CNN video, “whether it’s accurate or not.”<br />At her televised briefing Thursday, Ms. Sanders faced tough questions about the tweets from numerous outlets, including two journalists for Fox News, John Roberts<br />and Jon Decker, who posed some of the session’s more pointed queries.<br />Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe” and described a meeting with Ms. Brzezinski<br />in which, the president claimed, “she was bleeding badly from a face-lift.”<br />The coarseness of his remark — which echoed previous instances in which the president attacked prominent women, including the anchor Megyn Kelly<br />and the Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, about their physical appearance — drew rebukes even within the bulwarks of the Trump-friendly news media.<br />Privately, Ms. Brzezinski was stunned by the remarks, telling a close friend on Thursday morning: “I really don’t need this.” Her father, Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former national security adviser, died in May,<br />and her mother, Emilie Benes Brzezinski, has suffered two heart attacks since he died, according to the friend, who requested anonymity to describe a private conversation.<br />Minutes before Mr. Trump’s tweets Thursday, Ms. Brzezinski derided the president as “lying every day and destroying the country.”<br />Mr. Trump has been particularly upset by the hosts’ questioning of his mental state, the official said, viewing it as a form of personal betrayal.<br />“Is — is that necessary?” asked the Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer, referring to the graphic nature of Mr. Trump’s comments,<br />as Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the deputy White House press secretary, argued that Mr. Trump’s harsh words were justified.
