Democratic lawmaker says Donald Trump's Christmas message telling rivals to 'rot in hell' is 'pathetic'

WASHINGTON — Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., criticized former President Donald Trump’s Christmas message calling for President Joe Biden and others to “rot in hell,” saying it is contributing to divisiveness across the country.

"Quite frankly, I’m going to tell you that I think it was one of the most pathetic Christmas greetings I’ve heard when a former president of the United States who wants to return tells people on Christmas Day that they can rot in hell,” Dingell told CNN. “He is contributing to the divisiveness and division in this country.”

Dingell also highlighted mounting threats against public officials, adding that “hate and division are creeping into our communities far too easily.”

“We can disagree civilly,” Dingell said. “We need to respect every human being with dignity. We need to treat them like everybody’s a human being and bring that civility back because our democracy is in trouble.”

Trump appeared to respond to Dingell on his Truth Social platform following her interview, calling her a “loser” and claiming she wasn’t thankful enough after the honors he awarded for her husband’s funeral. She was married to former Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., the longest-serving member of Congress in U.S. history.

The former president’s Christmas message also received backlash from Mick Mulvaney, his former White House chief of staff. Mulvaney said in an interview on NewsNation Tuesday, “It’s horrible to put that out on Christmas, it really is.”

“But face it, if you don’t like that kind of stuff, you’ve already made up your mind that you’re probably not supporting Donald Trump anyway,” Mulvaney said. “And if you decide to support Donald Trump, you sort of realize, ‘Okay this comes with a territory,’ right?”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Democrat slams Trump's holiday message telling rivals to 'rot in hell'