'Doing this his entire life': Lev Parnas accuses Trump of demeaning women who push back

Lev Parnas, a former associate of Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, lambasted the President's behavior on the NBC interview with Kristen Welker, suggesting it is part of Trump's broader pattern of insulting, berating, threatening, and degrading women when they "dare to tell the truth." In a lengthy post on X, Parnas asserted: "He keeps using power as a weapon. This is not just about insults. This is about control. He takes away women's rights. He attacks women's credibility."

Parnas, a central figure in Trump's first impeachment in 2019, urged Americans to hold Trump accountable and cut off support for any media outlet, politician, or platform that continues to excuse or cover for him. "This is not politics anymore. This is about basic decency," he declaimed. The post follows Trump's combative appearance on 'Meet the Press', where he accused California of election rigging, insulted host Kristen Welker as "crooked" and "stupid," offered no evidence, and walked off set.

Born in Soviet Ukraine, Parnas knows a thing or two about unchecked power, which is part of what gives his rebuke its punch. As a former Trump ally who helped pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, he is no detached critic; his credibility comes precisely from having been on the inside. His comments reframe the Welker walkout not as an isolated outburst but as part of a longer pattern, raising uncomfortable questions about how much rope a president can be given when others have faced consequences for far less.

Parnas, who is now running for Congress, cited the case of E. Jean Carroll as an example of Trump's tendency to intimidate women. "And that is exactly the point. This is about control. He takes away women's rights. He attacks women’s credibility. He covers up the Epstein files. He protects the powerful men while attacking the women who survived them. He wants women silent. He wants survivors scared. He wants the country numb," he concluded in his post.

Trump's outburst drew swift condemnation across the board. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) turned his own words against him, arguing his policies were the ones deserving of "crooked" and "stupid," while praising Welker as a first-class journalist. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) went further, suggesting the President had lost his grip on reality and panicked when forced to confront it. Even former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh piled on, dubbing Trump "the most easily triggered snowflake in all of human history."