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Harris: Trump's Women Comment Offensive11/01 06:10

   Kamala Harris said Thursday that Donald Trump's comment that he would 
protect women whether they "like it or not" shows that the Republican 
presidential nominee does not understand women's rights "to make decisions 
about their own lives, including their own bodies."

   PHOENIX (AP) -- Kamala Harris said Thursday that Donald Trump's comment that 
he would protect women whether they "like it or not" shows that the Republican 
presidential nominee does not understand women's rights "to make decisions 
about their own lives, including their own bodies."

   "I think it's offensive to everybody, by the way," Harris said before she 
set out to spend the day campaigning in the Western battleground states of 
Arizona and Nevada.

   She followed up those remarks at her rally in Phoenix: "He simply does not 
respect the freedom of women or the intelligence of women to know what's in 
their own best interests and make decisions accordingly. But we trust women."

   The comments by Trump come as he has struggled to connect with female voters 
and as Harris courts women in both parties with a message centered on freedom. 
She's making the pitch that women should be free to make their own decisions 
about their bodies and that if Trump is elected, more restrictions will follow 
as both campaigns sprint toward Tuesday's presidential election.

   At a rally Wednesday evening near Green Bay, Wisconsin, Trump told his 
supporters that aides had urged him to stop using the term protector because it 
was "inappropriate."

   Then he added a new bit to the protector line. He said he told his aides: 
"Well, I'm going to do it whether the women like it or not. I am going to 
protect them."

   Those comments shaped much of Harris' Thursday as the two campaigns jostled 
over the remarks.

   The actress and singer Jennifer Lopez introduced Harris at a Las Vegas rally 
that also included a performance by the pop band Man. Lopez in emotional 
remarks talked about her background as a Puerto Rican and emphasized the 
importance of women for the Democratic nominee, who had just arrived after a 
separate rally in Reno.

   "I believe in the power of women," Lopez said. "Women have the power to make 
the difference in this election."

   Lopez also pushed back at comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who at Trump's Madison 
Square Garden rally called Puerto Rico "a floating island of garbage."

   "You can't even spell American without Rican," she said. "This is our 
country too."

   Trump appointed three of the justices to the U.S. Supreme Court who formed 
the conservative majority that overturned federal abortion rights. As the 
fallout from the 2022 decision spreads, he has taken to claiming at public 
events and in social media posts that he would "protect women" and ensure they 
wouldn't be "thinking about abortion."

   Harris tied Trump's comments to his approach to reproductive rights, but 
Trump generally speaks more of protecting women from criminals, terrorists and 
foreign adversaries, in keeping with the bleak picture he paints of a country 
in decline.

   "I'm going to protect them from migrants coming in. I'm going to protect 
them from foreign countries that want to hit us with missiles and lots of other 
things," Trump said during the rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

   Before Trump headlined a rally in Henderson, Nevada, on Thursday night, he 
responded to a top Harris campaign surrogate's claim that the former president 
does not surround himself with strong, intelligent women.

   Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban said as a guest on ABC's "The View" 
earlier Thursday that, "You never see" Trump "around strong, intelligent women 
-- ever."

   Trump, on X, posted that Cuban was "very wrong," and lashed out at him as "a 
fool" and a "MAJOR LOSER."

   "All strong women, and women in general, should be very angry about this 
weak man's statement," Trump's post read.

   The dispute showed signs of further entrenching each candidate's supporters.

   It was not only women who described Trump's remarks as offensive. At the 
Harris rally in Phoenix, Edison Kinlicheenie, 50, said he sees Trump more as a 
threat than a protector, noting that the former president has a track record of 
preying on women.

   "I have a wife and a daughter, so I wouldn't let no predator like that come 
around" them, Kinlicheenie said.

   At a Trump rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Sarah Pyle, 41, cited the 
opposition to allowing transgender athletes to compete in women's events to 
portray Trump as someone who helps women.

   "I don't want my girls to grow up in a world like this," the Albuquerque 
mother said, referring to the controversy. "We fought for women's rights for so 
long, and now we're giving them back to men. It makes no sense."

   Trump has given contradictory answers about his position on abortion, at 
some points saying that women should be punished for having abortions and 
showcasing the justices he appointed. During his successful 2016 campaign, he 
told voters that if he were elected, he would appoint justices to the Supreme 
Court to overturn Roe v. Wade and said he was "pro-life."

   But in recent weeks he's promised to veto a national abortion ban, after 
repeatedly refusing to make such a pledge. He has said the states should 
regulate care and said some laws were "too tough."

   Since 2022, the patchwork of state laws on abortion has created uneven 
medical care. Some women have died. Others have bled in emergency room parking 
lots or became critically ill from sepsis as doctors in states with strict 
abortion bans send pregnant women away until they are sick enough to warrant 
medical care. That includes women who never intended to end pregnancies. Both 
infant and maternal mortality has risen.

   Harris' campaign has highlighted Trump's statements around women. In one 
campaign ad, a woman who became gravely ill with sepsis after a pregnancy 
complication stands in front of a mirror looking at a large scar on her 
abdomen, as audio plays of Trump's comments about protecting women.

   Harris hopes abortion will be a strong motivator for women at the ballot box.

   In early voting so far, 1.2 million more women than men have voted across 
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 ticket of Joe 
Biden and Harris, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 110,000 
voters.

 
 
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