By Maria Ortiz
31 Oct 2024, 10:58 PM EDT
The vice president Kamala Harris criticized on Thursday donald trump after the former president said he would protect women whether they “like it or not,” calling the comments “very offensive.”
Harris said that the Republican presidential candidate demonstrated with this comment that does not understand women’s rights “to make decisions about their own lives, including their own bodies.”
“I think it’s offensive to everyone, by the way,” Harris said. before heading out to campaign in the western battleground states of Arizona and Nevada.
Harris told reporters that the comments They revealed how Trump views women and showed a disregard for their autonomy.
His criticism added to a negative reaction from other people who have described it as a demonstration of the Trump’s long history of misogynistic statements and a reminder of the civil court case brought by E. Jean Carroll that found him liable for sexual abuse.
Harris reiterated her comments later that day at a rally in Phoenix.
“There is a saying that you have to listen to people when they tell you who they are,” Harris said. “He does not believe that women should have the capacity and authority to make decisions about their own bodies. This is the same man who said women should be punished for their choices. “It just doesn’t respect women’s freedom or women’s intelligence to know what is best for them and make decisions accordingly.”
Trump has said during the campaign that he would “protect” women, a vague promise at a time when he has struggled to appeal to women voters, especially those concerned about restrictions on abortion rights.
On Wednesday night at an election rally in Wisconsin, Trump said his advisers had told him that stop saying he would protect women because it sounded inappropriate.
“My people told me, about four weeks ago – I always say, ‘No, I want to protect people. I want to protect the women of our country. I want to protect women.’ ‘Sir, please don’t say that.’ ‘Because?’ They said, ‘We think it’s… we think it’s very inappropriate for you to say that,’” Trump said. “Because? I am president. I want to protect the women of our country.’ “They said, they said, ‘Sir, I just think it’s inappropriate for you to say that.'”
Trump continued: “I said, well, I’m going to do it whether women like it or not.” He put emphasis on the words “women.”
“Donald Trump believes you should be able to make decisions about what you do with your body, whether you like it or not,” Harris wrote on X.
“This is just the latest in a series of revelations from the former president about how he thinks about women and their agency,” Harris said Thursday, adding that Trump’s comments “verify, validate and reinforce the fact that he is not going to fight for women’s reproductive rights.”
Harris hopes her defense of abortion rights will be a strong motivator for women in the elections.
In early voting, so far, 1.2 million more women than men have voted in the seven battleground states, according to data from analytics firm TargetSmart.
That doesn’t necessarily translate into Democratic gains. But in the 2020 presidential election, 55% of women supported the Democratic candidacy of Joe Biden and Harris, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 110,000 voters.
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