Kamala Harris has slammed Donald Trump for saying that he will be a “protector” of women “whether they like it or not,” calling the controversial remark “very offensive to women.”
While campaigning in Wisconsin on Thursday, Harris responded to Trump’s comments and suggested that they signify a deep lack of respect for women’s autonomy.
“It actually is, I think, very offensive to women in terms of not understanding their agency, their authority, their right, and their ability to make decisions about their own lives, including their own bodies,” Harris said at a press conference.
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“And this is just the latest in a series of reveals by the former president of how he thinks about women, and their agency.”
Trump’s remark came amid a taunt aimed at his own campaign staff. At a Wednesday night rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the former president said that his team had told him it was “inappropriate” to refer to himself as women’s “protector,” as he did last month.
But Trump disagreed, and doubled down.
“I pay these guys a lot of money, can you believe it?” he told the crowd, earning laughter. “And I said, ‘Well, I‘m going to do it whether the women like it or not. I’ve gotta protect them.’”
Over the course of the race for the presidency, Harris and her surrogates have argued that Trump’s presidency would be disastrous for American women, pointing most of all to his stances on abortion.
In a speech that made waves on social media last week, former First Lady Michelle Obama urged women to make their voices heard—and vote for Harris.
“Women standing up for what is best for us can make the difference in this election,” Obama said. “So let us use our voices in these final days to make it plain to the men in our lives that we need to stand not with Trump, but with us. We need them to vote for the only candidate in this race who will protect our lives. We need them to vote for Kamala Harris.”
Trump, for his part, has often touted his contributions to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending a constitutional protection of the right to abortion.
Earlier this month, he refused to affirm that he would not endorse a national abortion ban if he becomes president after Nov. 5.
Instead, in the interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, he reiterated his frequent claim that an end to the constitutional protection of abortion “is what every Democrat and Republican wanted.”
