In a rare foray into the partisan political spectrum, Mortgage Bankers Association President and CEO David H. Stevens took to his Twitter account to expess disgust with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump by comparing his latest press conference to a notoriously tacky exploitation talk show while retweeting a message from a left-of-center television host that referred to Trump and his allies as “miscreants.”
Ninety minutes ahead of the Sunday night presidential debate in St. Louis, Trump held a press conference with four women—Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey, Kathy Shelton and Paula Jones—that had accused former President Bill Clinton, husband of the Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, of sexual assault. Broaddrick has been the most vocal critic of Clinton and his wife in recent days, and she used the forum to repeat her charge that Bill Clinton raped her in 1978, a claim that the former president denied.
The Trump press conference did not discuss housing policy. Nonetheless, Stevens, who served as commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration in the first term of the Obama Administration, took to Twitter shortly after the Trump press conference to exclaim: “Wow..that press conference was like a Jerry Springer episode.” Minutes later, he retweeted a statement on the Twitter account of MSNBC talk show host Joy Reid that said, “As if Donald Trump and his band of miscreants couldn't drive American politics any lower... this is his press conference right now.” Stevens followed that up minutes later with a retweet of a Yahoo News report that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and his wife Cindy would not vote for Trump.
In previous public statements, Stevens used social media to call for the presidential candidates to consider creating a new position within the Executive Branch to focus on housing policy. The MBA has not formally given its backing to any candidate.
Updates: Within two minutes of the posting of this article, Stevens contacted this writer on Twitter to say, "But seriously. Where is Jerry Springer? 'Tis debate would be better with him vs cnn." Within an hour of that contact, Stevens deleted the Tweet that referenced Jerry Springer.
