Questions raised as Trump fails to stand in Oval Office address

A “Morning Joe” segment that was supposed to be about Donald Trump appearing to demur from attending the wedding of Don Trump Jr, went briefly off the rails over the 79-year-old president’s tendency to sit during his press availabilities in his second term.

Co-host Mika Brzezinski was the first to bring up the “optics” of the sitting president surrounded by “crotches and belly buttons” — a pointed reference to a man standing directly to Trump’s right on Thursday who had, what she called, a “distracting” protruding belly button.

“But why do they — it's all these crotches and belly buttons around the president. Like that was gross,” she complained. “Prominent belly buttons that distracted and I can't even. What? Why. Oh my God, make it go away!”

“I wrote earlier this week about this story about, how, look, Donald Trump is aging and there's some scrutiny coming to changes in his behavior,” co-host Jonathan Lemire offered. “One of the data points I mentioned is that for these events in the Oval Office, they have him seated now. They don't have him standing in front of podiums. And when you sit at the desk, that's the risk you run is that might be your backdrop.”

“Can someone say, ‘Mr. President, you look so much more commanding when you're standing so we don't have to look at belly buttons sticking out of big stomachs and crotches,’?” Brzezinski countered.

“Yeah, but that may not work that well anymore,” contributor Eugene Robinson interjected.

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