Former White House spokesman Pete Seat railed against Democrats for cursing, saying party lawmakers are dropping more “f-bombs than there are in The Big Lebowski.”
Seat, a President George W. Bush staffer from 2005 to 2009, made the reference on NewsNight With Abby Phillip during a conversation about comments from Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters Thursday in which she told reporters she believes President Donald Trump is “working towards a civil war.”
“People on both sides, frankly, have been throwing around the civil war thing,” host Phillip said on the show Thursday. “And I guess the challenge is that it’s all hyperbole until suddenly it‘s not. And at what point, I don‘t know. I mean, at what point does that change?”
Seat replied to claim that Democrats “have wanted to hit Maxine Waters’ mute button for years.”
“She tends to have these comments pop up every now and then,” Seat said. “But as I listen to her and her apocalyptic premonitions, and then I see some of her colleagues in the House of Representatives and the Senate drop more f-bombs than there are in The Big Lebowski, I think maybe they finally hit their stride: say crazy stuff and become your own worst enemy.”
The 1998 Coen Brothers cult comedy starring Jeff Bridges features an impressive 260 f-bombs, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Phillip reminded Seat that no one has the “high road” on their demeanor in Washington, D.C. “We have people, women, on the Republican side—congresswomen—screaming at each other, calling each other names,” Phillip.
Seat’s complaint comes after a co-ordinated social media campaign earlier this month, where Senate Dems fact-checked Trump by releasing videos of themselves barking “s--t that ain’t true” at promises made by the president.
One Democratic speechwriter told Politco that some of the swearing comes from genuine moments of frustration, while other incidents were borne out of the fact that Trump has generally lowered the tone in American politics.
“Some of it is an expression of authentic outrage at Trump smashing Democratic norms and institutions. Some of it is that — between Trump and his acolytes — the bar’s been lowered on how we expect public officials to comport themselves,” they said.
