Trump says a Harris vice presidency is ‘no way for a woman’ to become president
President Donald Trump on Thursday derided the prospect of a Vice President Kamala Harris, saying it would be “no way for a woman” to become the first female president.
“That’s no way for a woman to become the first president, that’s for sure,” Trump said during a campaign rally in Wisconsin, referring to a possible Harris vice presidency. “And if a woman is going to become the first president of the United States, it can’t be her. That would rip our country apart.”
He continued: “This is not what people want, as then she comes in through the backdoor. This would not be what people want, especially because it’s her.”
Trump seemed to be musing about a scenario in which Harris succeeds Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, who Trump has frequently claimed is physically unfit for office. Harris is the first woman of color to be nominated for vice president by one of the major political parties. The daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants would also be the first woman vice president in U.S. history.
Trump went after Harris during a rally in Mosinee, Wis., where he hit his usual campaign talking points — from lauding his administration’s tax reform to criticizing his Democratic challengers. His attack on Harris came as he revisited the crowded Democratic primary field of earlier this year, repeating old insults for his former challengers.
Attacking Harris has become a major part of the Trump campaign playbook. The president repeatedly characterizes Harris as a California liberal and among the most far-left candidates in the Senate, someone who he says is out of touch with the concerns of everyday Americans. The attacks reflect the Trump campaign’s difficulty leveling similar character attacks against Biden, who Trump has claimed is a puppet of more leftist wings of the Democratic Party.
Many of the president’s attacks on his Democratic challengers are exaggerated or flat-out untrue. While Trump has claimed that Harris and Biden want to “defund the police” and turn a blind eye toward looting and rioters amid anti-racist protests that have ballooned over the summer, both of the Democratic candidates have voiced their support for law enforcement and rejected violence in protests.
But that hasn’t tempered his strikes. During his Thursday rally, Trump called Harris a “vicious” candidate, alluding to her clashes with Biden on the debate stage when both were still vying for the Democratic nomination. The two candidates got into heated back-and-forths, particularly on issues related to race.
Harris, Trump said, was the candidate “who treated sleepy Joe the worst” — using one of his many mocking nicknames for Biden.
“I said brilliantly he will never pick her. Because she was too terrible to him,” Trump said. “But she picked him and hopefully that’s going to be history. It’s not going to matter.”
