Comedian and longtime Donald Trump nemesis Rosie O’Donnell repeatedly attacked Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) on Twitter Thursday after the congressman defended Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian attorney in a television interview.
In a series of Twitter posts, O’Donnell called Zeldin a “lying sack of sh*t” and a “moron” whose career is “over.”
“HEY REP LEE ZELDIN – SHUT UP – U SOUND LIKE A MORON – DEFENDING TRUMP – UR CAREER IS OVER,” O’Donnell wrote.
O’Donnell also tweeted to MSNBC host Katy Tur, requesting that she not invite “a**holes” like Zeldin on her program anymore.
A representative for Zeldin did not immediately return a request for comment. But the congressman sent a fundraising email to supporters Friday morning in which he blasted O’Donnell for her “character assassination” of him.
“It’s clear Rosie O’Donnell and her radical liberal supporters want to take Lee out and they’re even more desperate than ever to silence our voice,” the email read.
Zeldin had appeared on Tur’s MSNBC show Thursday to defend Trump Jr.’s reported meeting with Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya in June, which sparked controversy and renewed allegations of collusion when it was reveled this week.
“There are investigations going on, and Don Jr. says he’s willing to testify,” Zeldin told Tur. “There’s been an open line of communication there over the course of these last few days indicating there is total cooperation there, and will play out.”
“I base my own independent judgement off of the information that I have,” he added. “And everything that everyone knows about what happened at that meeting was that absolutely none of that hypothetical that was just presented actually took place. So I’m not going to assume a different fact pattern than what we’ve come into contact with. And as these investigations are playing out, if there’s additional information, then we take that into account in being able to answer the question differently.”
O’Donnell has been a consistent and outspoken opponent of both the president and his sons since well before the 2016 election. The comedian previously called for martial law to delay Trump’s inauguration, and just this week backed up former Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta in his social media scuffle with Trump.
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum