Harris campaign surrogate Mark Cuban belittles women associated with Trump

Billionaire Mark Cuban criticized the women who surround former President Donald Trump, while the Democrats’ campaign is attacking the former president for comments he made about protecting women.

On “The View” on Thursday, Mr. Cuban said, “Donald Trump, you never see him around strong, intelligent women. Ever. It’s just that simple.”

The Trump War Room X account called his comments “disgusting.”

“Top Kamala surrogate Mark Cuban says no ‘strong, intelligent women’ support President Trump,” the post said. “They’re now openly attacking the millions of strong, intelligent women fighting alongside President Trump every day to Make America Great Again.”

The Trump campaign called on Vice President Kamala Harris to “condemn” Mr. Cuban’s comments. This comes on the heels of President Biden’s comment that Trump supporters are “garbage” — another incident Republicans said exposed the Democrats’ disdain for huge swaths of American voters.

Kayleigh McEnany, a political commentator on Fox News’ “Outnumbered” and former Trump White House press secretary, said she took offense to Mr. Cuban’s comments and called them “misogynistic.”

“This is so profoundly offensive. I worked for Donald Trump. I consider myself a strong woman,” Ms. McEnany said on the show Thursday. “I consider those around me strong women: Kellyanne Conway, Brooke Rollins, Ivanka Trump, Hope Hicks, [Arkansas Gov.] Sarah Sanders.”

“That’s before we get to the women that Donald Trump elevated to very high levels like [former U.N. ambassador] Nikki Haley, who still supports him, like Amy Coney Barrett, who he put on the Supreme Court,” she said. “That is so offensive. And you know why? This is not just the women who worked for him. He said, ‘The woman around Donald Trump.’”

This comes as Democrats are criticizing Mr. Trump for saying he would be the “protector” of women if he wins a second term in the White House.

“I said, ‘Well, I’m going to do it, whether the women like it or not,” Mr. Trump said while campaigning in Wisconsin on Wednesday. “I’m going to protect them.”

Ms. Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee and Mr. Trump’s opponent, said Thursday the former president’s comments were offensive.

“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,” she told reporters in Wisconsin.

“And this is just the latest of a series of reveals by the former president of how he thinks about women and their agency,” Ms. Harris said.

Ms. Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, linked the comment to the sexual misconduct allegations against Mr. Trump, like his civil case with E. Jean Carroll in which he was found liable for sexual abuse.

“He said I’m gonna do it whether the women like it or not. That’s how this guy’s lived his life. That’s why he was on the Access Hollywood tape and that’s why he ended up in court,” Mr. Walz said in Pennsylvania. “That’s what he thinks about.”

During his presidential term, Mr. Trump had a few women in his Cabinet, including Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. His elder daughter, Ivanka Trump, was one of his senior advisers and Kellyanne Conway served as counselor to the president.

Ms. Conway is also the first woman to manage a successful presidential campaign, for Mr. Trump in 2016.

Still, women are a demographic that Mr. Trump and Republicans struggle with. A CBS News/YouGov poll released this week revealed that 55% of women are voting for Ms. Harris, compared to 43% for Mr. Trump. But among men, Mr. Trump leads 54% to 45%.

The Washington Times has reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.

— Jeff Mordock contributed to this report.