Trump escalates gendered personal insults against Harris, defying GOP pressure

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump fixated on Vice President Kamala Harris’s appearance in terms he acknowledged were offensive, rejecting pressure from GOP allies to emphasize policy differences over personal attacks. You know, David, don’t ever get caught in this trap,” Trump said at a rally Saturday, calling on Republican Senate candidate David McCormick in the audience. “David, please don’t ever call a woman beautiful, because that will be the end of your political career.” He appeared to take exception to a Wall Street Journal column that listed Harris’s appearance as one of her political assets, saying, “I am much better looking than her. Advertisement In other recent remarks, Trump suggested Harris’s appearance would undermine her with world leaders, saying they would view her as a “play toy” and declining to specify why. House Republican leaders have advised lawmakers to stop attacking Harris based on her identity, but Trump has brushed off advice from Republican allies, including former rival Nikki Haley, to avoid personal attacks against the Democratic presidential nominee. “I’m entitled to personal attacks,” he told reporters on Thursday. “I have to do it my way.” Trump’s continued focus on Harris’s gender and race comes as the Democrat has opened a gaping lead with female voters. A new New York Times-Siena poll found Harris ahead of Trump by 14 percentage points with women in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia and Nevada, where Trump and President Joe Biden were tied among women in May. Advertisement Trump has a long history of insulting the appearance of female rivals and critics, including 2016 Republican candidate Carly Fiorina and Stormy Daniels, an adult-film actress who has said she had a sexual encounter with him. “All we have to do is define our opponent as being a communist or a socialist or somebody that’s going to destroy our country.” At times in Saturday’s speech, which lasted almost two hours, Trump sounded nostalgic for running against Biden. They told him he couldn’t win,” he said, baselessly accusing Biden of hating Harris for succeeding him on the ticket. He then seemed to catch himself by adding, “She’ll be easier than him.” Advertisement Trump repeatedly described Harris as a “lunatic” and mocked her laugh. “As soon as she laughs, the election’s over,” he said. Elsewhere in Saturday’s speech, Trump attempted to inflame Democratic divisions over Israel’s war in Gaza by baselessly accusing Harris of passing over the state’s governor, Josh Shapiro, to be her running mate because he is Jewish. After his interview, Shapiro told Harris’s team that he was struggling with the prospect of leaving his current position, a person familiar with the matter told The Post. Shapiro has denied antisemitism had any impact in the decision, and a campaign official told The Post the most important factor in Harris’s decision was her personal rapport with Walz. Advertisement Trump’s campaign and many Republicans feared Shapiro because of his dominant popularity in his home state, which they view as likely to decide the electoral college. He repeated a refrain in Saturday’s speech that Jewish Americans who vote Democratic should “have their head examined.” Many American Jews object to being stereotyped as single-issue voters on Israel, which reminds them of an old antisemitic trope questioning their loyalty to this country. In Saturday’s speech, Trump veered from one topic to the next over almost two hours, dwelling on the June 27 presidential debate against Biden, illegal immigration, and a story about negotiations with French President Emmanuel Macron during which Trump imitated Macron’s French accent. “They’ll say he was rambling,” he said. I don’t ramble.” In the speech, Trump defended his proposal to impose tariffs on China and other countries. “A lot of people like to say, ‘Oh, it’s a tax on us,’” Trump said. “No, no, no, it’s a tax on a foreign country.” – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/08/17/trump-harris-presidential/