In one of his final campaign appearances before Election Day, Donald Trump creepily declared that he’s going to protect American women “whether the women like it or not,” accidentally driving home the message that he does not know or care about consent, whether in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the ’90s or as a presidential candidate.
Speaking at a rally in Wisconsin, Trump told the crowd that his staff had begged him not to make paternalistic claims about women, like his declaration last month that, with him as president, women in this country “will no longer be thinking about abortion” because “you will be protected and I will be your protector.” After claiming that his staff told him, “We think it’s very inappropriate for you to say,” Trump said he responded, “I’m going to do it whether the women like it or not. I am going to protect them.”
While the current national polls effectively put Trump in a dead heat with Kamala Harris, she is trouncing him when it comes to support among women, including in key swing states. Which might have something to do with the fact that the ex-president says things like, “I’m going to do it whether the women like it or not,” and that he also:
- Was found liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the ’90s, with the judge presiding over the case saying the jury found he raped her
- Has been accused by an additional two dozen women of sexual misconduct (which he, of course, denies)
- Has a long history of referring to women as “dogs”
- Played a major role in getting Roe v. Wade overturned, which he brags about regularly
- Selected a running mate who previously called for a national abortion ban
- Once said there “has to be some form of punishment” for women who obtain illegal abortions
- Has said he’s fine with states tracking individual pregnancies for the purpose of prosecuting people who undergo the medical procedure
- Constantly disparages the intelligence of women he doesn’t like and/or calls them ugly
- Has called Harris a “low-IQ individual,” said she’s “barely competent,” and claimed that she “can’t do a news conference” because “she’s not smart enough”
- Held a rally at Madison Square Garden during which one of the speakers said Harris has “pimp handlers”
- Amplified a post on social media that included an image of the VP and Hillary Clinton and featured the text: “Funny how blowjobs impacted both their careers differently…”
