WASHINGTON — Donald Trump has demonstrated for years that when he’s panicking about one thing dangerous taking place to him — a court docket ruling towards him, a key witness testifying towards him, his marketing campaign numbers sinking — he lashes out.
We’re clearly in a kind of moments.
As Vice President Kamala Harris is quick rising within the polls, now main or tied with Trump in all seven swing states, Trump is resorting to vile sexually-themed assaults towards her.
On Wednesday, Trump shared a screenshot on social media exhibiting a photograph of Harris with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Beneath the picture, which went out to Trump’s 7.6 million followers, an individual within the screenshot wrote, “Funny how blowjobs impacted both of their careers differently.”
The remark is a jab on the vp’s Nineteen Nineties-era relationship with Willie Brown, who went on to change into the mayor of San Francisco — a relationship that Harris’ political opponents have been making an attempt to border as a sexual quid-pro-quo — in addition to a reference to former President Invoice Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky.
Trump’s publish got here a day after Fox Information host Jesse Watters, a loyal Trump ally, accused Harris of getting no said overseas coverage plans and stated she could be “paralyzed in the Situation Room while the generals have their way with her.”
Not even two weeks in the past, the GOP presidential nominee shared one other video on social media mocking Harris for having “spent her whole damn life down on her knees,” one other suggestion that she has given sexual favors for political acquire. The video, which parodied the Alanis Morissette track “Ironic,” flashed pictures of Brown and second gentleman Doug Emhoff as that line performed.
It’s disgusting, and it’s totally predictable, say leaders of outstanding girls’s advocacy teams.
“This is the Donald Trump playbook, in particular, when he’s on the defensive and feels he is not driving the conversation,” stated Jessica Mackler, the president of EMILY’s Listing, a nationwide group that helps elect Democratic girls who assist abortion rights.
“He uses these really gross, really sexist, often racist and sexual-in-nature attacks. It does two things: It panders to his base and gets them riled up, and two, it seeks to create chaos around him and he can move into whatever space that is,” she stated. “So the more that we see this movement by the Harris campaign, the more we see this enthusiasm, the more he is pushed to these all-time new lows.”
Mackler added, “There is no limit.”
Trump’s campaign did not reply to a request for comment on either of the posts.
But on Friday, Trump’s vice presidential pick JD Vance defended Trump’s sexist attacks on Harris. During an interview on CNN, he was asked how Trump’s “misogynist memes” about feminine politicians and blowjobs are in any respect useful in bringing the nation collectively.
Trump is “a political candidate who isn’t stodgy, who likes to have some fun and likes to tell some jokes,” said Vance, currently an Ohio Republican senator. “I’d much rather have a candidate who’s willing to go off-script, who’s willing to give every interview and is willing to tell some jokes. I do think that’s how you lift people up.”
Stunningly, he added, “A politics of boring scolds telling people they can’t laugh, that is not lifting Americans up. That is tearing us down.”
Amanda Thayer, who previously led political communications at NARAL Pro-Choice America and is now vice president at Global Strategy Group, said if anything, Trump’s and Vance’s latest attacks on Harris show they don’t have anything of substance to argue.
“Just like men who can’t handle powerful and successful women have always done, Trump is resorting to vile attempts to discredit her character,” Thayer said. “But that strategy is not going to work, because it assumes there won’t be backlash from millions of women and people who are turned off by his sexist politics. … And there is no one more adept at holding him accountable for his extremism than the vice president.”
Past being repulsive, the posts and feedback are usually not doing Trump any favors in profitable over feminine voters. His marketing campaign is already bleeding support from women furious about Republicans’ ongoing efforts to strip them of reproductive health care access. The three conservative justices Trump put onto the Supreme Court as president are the reason Roe v. Wade was struck down in 2022, and he’s hailed that decision, taking credit for the fall of Roe, as Americans nationwide struggle to navigate restrictive state abortion laws.
Trump has additionally advised he’d revoke entry to the abortion tablet in a second term, which is the most common method of abortion.
“Sure, you could, you could do things that will be, would, would supplement,” the Republican presidential nominee said in April, in response to a question about whether he’d direct the FDA to “revoke access” to the abortion drug mifepristone in a second term.
“Absolutely,” he continued in his muddled response. “But you have to be able to have a vote, and all I want to do is give everybody a vote.”
Trump has been making these ugly smears against Harris even as he’s tried to backpedal on his anti-abortion stance, apparently trying to win back some female voters. On Thursday, he suggested he plans to vote in favor of the Florida state constitutional amendment to protect abortion access, which will be on the ballot in November.
“I think the six weeks is too short, it has to be more time,” Trump told NBC News, referring to the state’s current six-week abortion ban. “I’m gonna be voting that we need more than six weeks.”
The Republican presidential nominee has a terrible record when it comes to supporting women’s rights, or respecting women at all. Dozens of women have publicly accused Trump of sexual harassment or assault. In 2016, Trump was caught on tape bragging about with the ability to “seize [women] by the pussy,” and final yr he was found liable for sexual abuse in a civil rape trial involving advice columnist E. Jean Carroll.
He has additionally proven, repeatedly, that he can not deal with going up towards sturdy girls in politics. Former Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has sent him into full-blown meltdowns repeatedly over the years, and when he ran towards Clinton in 2016, he made crude feedback about her look and her character all through his marketing campaign. Clinton generally ignored his inappropriate personal attacks, much like Harris is doing now.
Now, with Vance added to the combo — a man who has infuriated thousands and thousands of “childless cat ladies” throughout America — the Republican presidential ticket is sending a fairly clear message, as Emily Martin, chief program officer for the Nationwide Girls’s Legislation Middle, informed HuffPost.
“Trump and Vance are really, very clearly, running on a platform of putting women in their place,” she said.
“From criminalizing abortion to ridiculing unmarried women to casual sexual harassment and abuse, I think they’re alienating more voters every day,” Martin added. “But they are making the bet that enough people — enough men – will respond to this positively and join them in the enjoyment of sexually humiliating women.”
“They are making the bet that enough people – enough men – will respond to this positively and join them in the enjoyment of sexually humiliating women.”
– Emily Martin, National Women’s Law Center
Harris’ campaign declined comment on Trump’s personal attacks. This appears to be part of a broader strategy: to simply brush off Trump’s attacks on Harris’ race or gender, and stay focused on the issues currently infusing her campaign with momentum, as Trump desperately looks for a way to make the conversation about himself.
The vp herself demonstrated this method on Thursday evening, when requested during a sit-down interview with CNN about Trump recently questioning her racial identity.
“Same old, tired playbook,” is all Harris said. “Next question, please.”
Mackler said Harris’ campaign is smart not to get caught up in commenting every time Trump goes off the rails and says something blatantly sexist or racist.
“What they are talking about right now on the Harris campaign is working,” she stated. “Voters really want you to spend 99.9% of your time talking about what you are going to do, how does this affect me and my life, what does this mean for us and our future.
“It does not make sense for them to get distracted from this theme,” Mackler stated.
Martin agreed the Harris campaign benefits by ignoring Trump’s misogyny, which is almost certainly going to escalate as November gets closer.
“What I take from that is that Kamala Harris is not interested in playing the victim,” she stated. “I feel like people like me and the press absolutely need to call this out and name it and speak to how truly vile and despicable and beyond the pale this is.
Martin added, “I respect the decision that this conversation is really beneath her as a candidate and as a leader.”
