Former President Donald Trump is confident the personal insults he hurls at Vice President Kamala Harris are not going to cost him the support of women voters who have turned out more than men in recent elections.
Mr. Trump, the 2024 GOP presidential nominee, has habitually maligned Ms. Harris, who is seeking to become the nation’s first female president, and did so Wednesday, describing his Democratic rival as a “horrible person,” “a liar,” “not a smart person,” and “grossly incompetent.”
“She doesn’t even know where the hell she is,” Mr. Trump said at a rally in Scranton, Pennsylvania, before mocking her as a vacuous person. “I don’t want to be nice.”
“Somebody said, ‘You should be nicer; women won’t like it.’ I said, ‘I don’t care,’” Mr. Trump said. “The women want safety, and the women want to have a country that they can be proud of.”
Women tend to vote more Democrat, while men vote more Republican. Polls show that the same dynamic is playing out this year.
A Quinnipiac Poll released last week showed Ms. Harris has a 55%-40% lead among women in Pennsylvania and Mr. Trump has a 52%-41% lead among men.
The gender gap came into sharp focus when Ms. Harris took the reins from President Biden.
In addition to Ms. Harris seeking to break the glass ceiling, she also is hoping the abortion issue will galvanize women voters to support her.
According to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers, women have voted at higher rates than men in every presidential election since 1980, and the gap between them has grown with each successive election.
Exit polls from 2020 show that women comprised 53% of the Pennsylvania electorate, compared to 47% for men.
Mr. Trump is betting that voters are seeking change after four years of the Biden-Harris administration and are more interested in policy plans than in which candidate is nicer.
At the rally, Mr. Trump said Pennsylvania voters are suffering because of the policies Ms. Harris supported, from energy to immigration and taxes.
“We are going to defeat lying Kamala Harris,” he said.
Mr. Trump also shared video footage of Ms. Harris’ recent appearance on ABC’s “The View” in which she said, “Nothing comes to mind” when asked what she would do differently than Mr. Biden over the last four years.
Mr. Trump then took a shot at the co-host, Sunny Hostin, who asked Ms. Harris the question, saying she was “dumber than Kamala.”
“She is a dummy. I have watched her over the years. That is one dumb woman,” he said. “I’m sorry women. She’s a dummy.”
Mr. Trump said the women in attendance agreed.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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