Kamala Harris: Trump’s comments about women are ‘offensive to everyone’

MADISON, WI. — Kamala Harris said Thursday that Donald Trump’s comment that he will protect women “whether they like it or not” shows the Republican presidential candidate doesn’t understand women’s right “to make decisions about their own lives, including own body.”

“By the way, I think it’s offensive to everyone,” Harris said before heading out to campaign in the western battleground states of Arizona and Nevada.

Trump’s remarks come as he struggles to connect with women voters and Harris has courted women in both parties while preaching a message of freedom. She states that women should be free to make their own decisions about their bodies and that if Trump is elected, more restrictions will follow.

Trump appointed three justices to the U.S. Supreme Court who formed a conservative majority that struck down federal abortion rights. As the consequences of the 2022 decision spreadhe began stating at public events and in social media posts that he will “protect women” and make sure they are not “thinking about abortion.”

At a rally Wednesday night near Green Bay, Wisconsin, Trump told supporters that aides had urged him to stop using the phrase because it was “inappropriate.”

He then added a new element to the defensive line. He said he told his assistants, “Well, I’m going to do it whether the women like it or not. I’m going to protect them.”

Harris said the remark was part of a series of troubling statements from Trump.

“This is just the latest in a long series of revelations from the former president about how he thinks about women and their agency,” she said.

Trump’s comments have heightened the bitterness between the campaigns as both campaigns vie for women voters, who typically make up the majority of the electorate. Harris’ surrogate, Mark Cuban, a billionaire businessman, said in an interview with The View that Trump has never surrounded himself with “strong, smart women.”

Cuban’s remark drew sharp criticism from women involved in Trump’s political operation, with his campaign manager Susie Wiles saying in a rare social media post that she was “proud to lead this campaign.” Campaign spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt also slammed Cuban, saying he was “implying that female Trump supporters are ‘weak and stupid.’

More broadly, Trump and Republicans have struggled with how to talk about abortion rights, especially at a time when women across the country are struggling to get adequate health care because of abortion restrictions that extend far beyond the ability to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. pregnancy.

Trump gave conflicting answers about his position on abortion, at some points saying women should be punished for having abortions and showing off his appointed judges. During his successful 2016 campaign, he told voters that if elected, he would appoint justices to the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade and declared that he was “pro-life.”

But in recent weeks he has vowed to veto a national abortion ban after repeatedly refusing to make such a promise. He said states should regulate care and said some laws are “too tough.”

Since 2022, patchy state abortion laws have led to uneven health care delivery. Some women died. Others have bled in emergency department parking lots or become seriously ill due to sepsis, as doctors in states with strict abortion bans send away pregnant women until they are so sick that they require medical care. This includes women who never intended to terminate their pregnancy. Both child and maternal mortality rates have increased.

The Harris campaign seized on Trump’s statements about women. In one advertising campaign, a woman who became seriously ill with sepsis after a pregnancy complication stands in front of a mirror and stares at a large scar on her stomach as audio of Trump’s comments about protecting women plays.

Harris hopes abortion will be a strong motivator for women at the polls.

According to analytics firm TargetSmart, 1.2 million more women than men have voted so far in the seven states with early voting.

This does not necessarily lead to gains for Democrats. But in the 2020 presidential election, the difference between men and women in support for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris was 9 percentage points, according to AP VoteCastsurvey of more than 110,000 voters.

The Democratic ticket was supported by 55% of women and 46% of men. That’s largely unchanged from the 2018 midterms, when VoteCast found a 10-point gender gap, with 58% of women and 48% of men backing Democrats in congressional races.

Liz Cheney, a conservative Republican who campaigned for Harris, noted along the way that the ballots are secret and suggested that Republicans who want to quietly vote against Trump could do so. The new ad campaign, narrated by Julia Roberts, features a woman walking into a voting booth and voting for Vice President Kamala Harris.

“You can vote any way you want,” Roberts says as a voter exchanges a knowing look with another woman. – And no one will ever know. As she leaves the voting booth, her husband asks, “Did you make the right choice?” to which the wife replies: “Of course, dear.”

“Remember, what happens in the booth stays in the booth,” Roberts says.

The ad angered some Trump supporters, including Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, which plays a central role in former Trump’s voter turnout campaign in many key states.

Kirk, speaking on conservative Megyn Kelly’s podcast, called the ad “repulsive” and “catastrophic,” calling it “the embodiment of the failure of the American family.”

Kirk also suggested, unexpressed in the ad, that the husband is “probably working as hard as he can to make sure she can live a good life and provide for her family,” but “Harris and her team believe there are millions of women who undermine their husbands.”

Kirk’s network of organizations is critical to the Trump campaign, especially working statewide in Arizona and Wisconsin, two key swing states.

Harris has rallies planned for Thursday in Phoenix, Reno, Nevada and Las Vegas. Trump, meanwhile, is traveling to New Mexico and Virginia in the final days of the campaign, taking a risky detour into seven battleground states to spend time in places where Republican presidential candidates haven’t won in decades.