Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) responded Wednesday to Donald Trump renewing his petty grievances over the funeral of her late husband, longtime Michigan congressman John Dingell, saying that the last thing Trump should be doing right now is fueling “division.”
On CNN’s The Situation Room, Dingell was asked about Trump’s Truth Social post about her, in which he claimed she was insufficiently thankful for his role in her spouse’s funeral arrangements. Trump’s post was apparently prompted by Dingell taking issue with his moody Christmas Day message wishing for President Joe Biden, Special Counsel Jack Smith, and others who “are looking to destroy” the U.S. to “ROT IN HELL.”
Dingell proceeded to take the high road.
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“I’m going to say [that] we’ve got to treat each other with dignity and respect. Civility matters. Words have consequences,” she said. “We’re in a holiday right now [and] so many people have had a tough, hard year. We need some calm, some love, some hope—not more negative words with division. And I think each and every one of us has a responsibility to stand up and ask everybody to treat each other with that respect and dignity.”
Dingell then recalled her late husband’s funeral in February 2019.
“He earned everything he got at his funeral when he was buried. It was Nancy Pelosi and actually Mitch McConnell and others that helped arrange some of the things, but I’m going to tell you two things. I remember: I did not call Donald Trump. He called me. And I remember his kind words that day,” she said.
“I was grateful that he lowered the flags, and I remember that act of kindness, and I choose to remember it as an act of kindness and a touching thing at a very hard time,” Dingell continued. “And maybe all of us could remember that just having empathy and compassion and a little kindness will make everybody’s day better.”
Dingell also stood by her earlier assessment of Trump’s Christmas missive as “one of the most pathetic Christmas greetings I’ve heard.”
After Dingell voted to impeach Trump in late 2019, the then-president responded by suggesting that her late husband was in hell. The White House chalked the comment up to mere “riffing,” and refused to apologize.
