President Donald Trump said Thursday that MSNBC hosts Nicolle Wallace and Rachel Maddow should be fired for their "disgraceful" comments about the teenage cancer survivor that Trump featured in his joint address to Congress earlier this week.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump assailed the comments by the women in response to Trump making Devarjaye "DJ" Daniel, 13, an honorary agent of the U.S. Secret Service on Tuesday night.
Wallace, in her on-air remarks after Trump's speech, said "I hope [Daniel] isn't one of the six who loses his life to suicide," referring to the police officers who took their own lives after the Jan. 6 riots.
In addition to public outcry that exploded on social media ripping Wallace and calling for her job, Trump, too, said she should be fired.
"Frankly, what Nicolle Wallace said — I've never been a fan of hers, and she's not very talented — but I'll tell you, what she said the other day about that young man is disgraceful. She should be forced to resign," Trump said.
Maddow said Trump was "disgusting" for highlighting Daniel's battle against cancer. He was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in 2018.
"For the record – and this is disgusting – the president made a spectacle out of praising a young man who's, thus far, survived pediatric cancer – as if the president had something to do with that," Maddow said Tuesday night.
Trump said, "And Rachel Maddow should be forced to resign — nobody watches her anyway," Trump said Thursday. "The good news is that no one watches them anymore — they have lost such credibility."
Daniel wore a Houston Police Department uniform to Trump's address; he's dreamt of becoming a cop and has been collecting honorary badges to as many law enforcement agencies as he can. He's had 13 surgeries while battling a rare form of brain cancer that doctors said would kill him after five months. That was six years ago.
"I hope he has a long life as a law enforcement officer, but I hope he never has to defend the United States Capitol against Donald Trump's supporters," Wallace also said about Daniel.
"The mainstream media still doesn't get it. Last night, MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace disgustingly looped in a 13-year-old-boy with brain cancer into an attack on the president over Jan. 6," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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