Vice President Kamala Harris slammed the former president Donald Trump on Thursday, he said the campaign The pledge to protect women “willingly or not” was “offensive to everyone”.
“It’s really, I think, very insulting to women because they don’t understand their agency, their authority, their right and their ability to make decisions about their lives, including their bodies,” Harris told reporters. Wisconsin.
Harris quickly repeated his statement, saying, “It’s offensive to everyone.”
At a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin on Wednesday night, Trump tried to appeal to women voters.
“I want to protect the women of our country,” Trump said.
He said his remarks went against the guidance of his advisers, calling the statement “highly inappropriate”.
Donald Trump gestures after speaking at a campaign rally at the Resch Center on October 30, 2024 in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
“Why did I say that? I’m the president. I want to protect the women of our country,” Trump said to loud applause.
The former president added: “I said, ‘Well, I’m going to do it whether the women want it or not. I’m going to protect them, I’m going to protect them from the migrants that are coming, I’m there. We’re going to protect them from foreign countries that want to hit us with missiles, and a lot of other things.’
With less than a week to go before Election Day, both candidates are working to sway undecided voters and put the finishing touches on their bids for the White House.
Trump made the comments about protecting women in Wisconsin, a battleground state Harris leads, according to a recent analysis of polls. ABC News’ 538. Both candidates are working to appeal to women in a year when abortion is a top voter issue.
According to a recent poll, Harris leads Trump by 9 points (56%-42%) among women. ABC News/Ipsos poll.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris speaks with members of the media in Madison, Wisconsin, on October 31, 2024.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
Harris was quick to respond to Trump’s remarks, saying in a statement released Wednesday night in social networks“Donald Trump thinks you should get to make decisions about what you do with your body. Whether you like it or not.”
So is Sarafina Chitika, Harris’ campaign spokeswoman took it to social mediaposting, “Donald Trump thinks he knows better than the women of America. To him, our choices don’t matter, our decisions are his to control, and he’s going to ban abortion nationwide whether we want it or not.”
On Thursday, Harris continued to blast Trump’s comments.
“This is just the latest in how the former president thinks about women and their agency, whether he’s said — like him — that women should be punished for their choices, whether he’s talked about his pride in denying women a basic right, how it has created 1 in 3 women in the United States today living under a Trump abortion ban and having legal restrictions on their right to make decisions about their own bodies,” Harris said.
Harris added: “Every day, I think there are also signs that we’re getting from my opponent, who validates and validates and reinforces that he’s not going to fight for women’s reproductive rights, that he doesn’t prioritize women’s freedom and women’s intelligence to make decisions about their lives and their bodies.”
Trump appeared at Wednesday’s rally in Wisconsin wearing a fluorescent orange vest with his name emblazoned on the side, like those worn by sanitation workers, to make a point about President Joe Biden’s remarks during a campaign call this week. He allegedly associated Trump supporters and “trash.”
Biden and the White House tried clarify his remarkssaying he was referring specifically to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” during Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.
Trump and other Republican leaders hit back at Biden’s comment, saying Biden was talking about all “Trump supporters,” a specific relationship “Trump supporters” have with trash.
Earlier this week, Nikki Haley, who served as UN ambassador in the Trump administration, said in an interview. Fox News’ Bret Baier that he believes the former president is the best choice for the nation’s economy, national security and his family.
“We know what we’re going to get with Donald Trump. We lived the economy under Donald Trump. We know how strong he was at the border. We know how dominant we were in energy, and we know what our national security was like. I like it,” Haley said in the interview that aired on Tuesday.
Haley warned the Trump campaign to be disciplined and focused on the issues.
“This is not the time for anyone to criticize Puerto Rico or Latinos,” Haley said. “This is not the time to be overly masculine with this bromance thing. 53% of the electorate are women. Women will vote. They care about how they’re spoken to and they care about the issues.”
Trump made his comments about protecting women the next day, about six months after a New York jury found Trump guilty. responsible for the battery and defamation E. In a civil lawsuit brought against him by writer Jean Carroll, Trump sexually assaulted her in a dressing room at department store Bergdorf Goodman in the 1990s.
The jury awarded Carroll a total of $5 million in the case. The panel found that Trump did not rape Carroll, but sexually assaulted her, and awarded her $2 million in punitive damages and $20,000 in punitive damages for battery. The jury also awarded $1 million in damages: $1.7 million in reputational damages and $280,000 in defamation.
Trump has denied Carroll’s allegations.
In May, Trump was found guilty of all 34 felonies Related to a 2016 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an affair, the first time in history a former US president has been convicted of criminal charges. At trial, Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen testified that he made payments to Daniels on Trump’s behalf to boost Trump’s electoral chances in the 2016 presidential election.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump was caught on a hot mic bragging to former “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush about how he grabbed women by the genitalia. Trump later dismissed his remarks as “locker room banter.”
ABC News’ Fritz Farrow, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Will McDuffie contributed to this report.
