Harris Seizes On Trump’s Vow To Protect Women Whether They ‘Like It Or Not’

Vice President Kamala Harris seized on a remark from Donald Trump that he would “protect” women if elected — whether they “like it or not” — to assail her Republican rival’s stance on reproductive rights and other freedoms in an appeal to suburban and independent women.

“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,” Harris told reporters on Thursday in Madison, Wisconsin, ahead of a western-state campaign swing.

“This is just the latest in a series of reveals by the former president of how he thinks about women and their agency,” Harris added. “He does not prioritize the freedom of women and the intelligence of women to make decisions about their own lives and bodies.”

Trump at recent rallies has said he will protect women, highlighting his campaign promises to crack down on the border and crime as well as to neutralize the issue of abortion rights following backlash over restrictions on the procedure imposed by states.

The former president at a rally on Wednesday said advisers had cautioned him against using that line, before going on to say “Well, I’m going to do it whether the women like it or not. I am going to protect them.”

Critics pounced on the remark from a candidate who has already been found liable for sexual abuse and defamation.

On Thursday, Trump told a similar story about rejecting his advisers’ suggestions for him to use the term “Latino” instead of “Hispanic” during a stop in New Mexico.

With five days until Election Day, Harris and Trump are ramping up their messaging to draw in any undecided voters and mobilize their supporters to cast early ballots.

Here’s the latest from the campaign trail on Thursday:

Trump traveled to New Mexico — a state a Republican presidential candidate has not won for 20 years — as part of a swing through the Southwest that also includes stops in battlegrounds Arizona and Nevada. The former president told voters in Albuquerque that he’s there because it’s good for his “credentials with the Hispanic or Latino community.”

Trump’s outreach to Latino voters has been undercut in recent days by the furor over comments at a rally from a comedian who denigrated Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”

Still, the former president didn’t shy away from divisive remarks, telling his supporters in New Mexico that they’ve been overrun by violent criminals.

“You now have those gang members in your presence,” Trump said Thursday. “You have a lot of rough hombres, don’t you?”

Trump and Harris are both campaigning in the crucial state of Nevada — a battleground where they are competing for blue-collar voter and Latinos.

Nevada and fellow swing-state Arizona, where Harris also held a campaign stop in Phoenix, are the battlegrounds with the highest percentage of Latino voters, a traditionally Democratic cohort where Trump has made strong inroads, particularly among men.

After her event in Phoenix, Harris went to Reno, Nevada, before going to Las Vegas — and like her recent rallies, the events included A-list celebrities, including prominent Latino artists. Singer Jennifer Lopez, whose parents were born in Puerto Rico, and Mexican rock band Maná are appearing at the Vegas rally.

After his New Mexico stop, Trump appeared in Henderson, Nevada, where he told the audience about suing CBS Broadcasting Inc. In the suit filed earlier Thursday, the former president alleged it engaged in election interference by airing two different versions of a 60 Minutes interview with Harris. A network spokesperson said the lawsuit lacks merit and that the interview wasn’t doctored.

“They should lose their license, which is worth billions,” Trump said at his rally.

Later, he’s joining former Fox News host Tucker Carlson for an event in Glendale, Arizona, along with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Harris said her day-one priority would be sending a “package of bills” to Congress designed to bring down the cost of living, including her proposals to subsidize child care and give the federal government tools to limit grocery price gouging.

“It’s not one, it’s a package that is with one singular purpose, bringing down the cost of living,” Harris told NBC News in an interview.

Harris also reacted to her Republican rival’s use of a garbage truck to highlight President Joe Biden’s gaffe earlier in the week when condemning a comedian at a Trump rally, saying Americans were “exhausted” with the former president.

“They’re done with it, and they’re ready to turn the page and accept and receive a new generation of leadership,” Harris said.

Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, followed the former president’s lead with an appearance Thursday on comedian Joe Rogan’s popular podcast, during which he acknowledged that Republicans have lost some trust from women voters over their handling of abortion. He also shared his reaction to the first failed assassination attempt on the party’s standard-bearer.

Vance reiterated Trump’s stance that abortion is now an issue for the states after the Supreme Court’s conservative majority — including three justices tapped by the former president — struck down federal rights to the procedure. The former president has sought to neutralize the issue as he seeks to shore up support among suburban women and independents.

Rogan raised concerns that men were making laws that impacted women’s health.

“Trump wants this debate to happen organically and democratically,” Vance responded, adding that “clearly the Republican Party on this issue has lost a lot of trust.”

Vance also said that in the moments after the failed assassination attempt on Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, he did not know that the former president had survived and hurried home to load his guns.

“The initial reaction is I actually thought they had killed him, because when you first see the video, he grabs his ear, and then he goes down, and I’m like, ‘oh my god, they just killed him,’” Vance told Rogan.

“First I was so pissed, but then I go into like, fight or flight mode with my kids,” Vance continued. “I’m like, you know, alright kids, you know, we were at a mini-golf place in Cincinnati, Ohio. I grab my kids up, throw them in the car, go home and load all my guns, and basically stand like a sentry in our front door.”

Both candidates are continuing to court celebrity endorsements in the closing days of the campaign, in hopes of attracting voters who may not be closely paying attention to the race.

Harris will be joined at a rally on Friday in Milwaukee by rapper and songwriter Cardi B, who will deliver remarks encouraging early voting. Musical guests GloRilla, Flo Milli, MC Lyte, The Isley Brothers, and DJ Gemini Gilly will perform.

During a campaign event in Atlanta in swing-state Georgia on Saturday, Harris supporters will be treated to performances by artists 2 Chainz, Big Tigger, Monica and Pastor Troy.

On Thursday, basketball superstar LeBron James endorsed the vice president.

Trump’s campaign, meanwhile, is touting the endorsement of YouTube star and professional boxer Jake Paul, who boasts millions of subscribers on the video platform.

Billionaire Mark Cuban, who has been serving as a high-profile surrogate for Harris’ campaign, created a controversy of his own on Thursday when he said of Trump that “you never see him around strong, intelligent women” during an appearance on ABC’s The View.

The comment drew fire from female Trump allies – including senior campaign adviser Susie Wiles – as well as the former president himself.

“Actually, he is very wrong, I surround myself Mark Cuban with the strongest of women - With the understanding that ALL women are great, whether strong or not strong,” Trump tweeted.

Cuban took to social media as well, saying the context of the conversation was why former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley wasn’t active in Trump’s campaign – and saying that he knew “many strong, intelligent women voting for Trump.”

“I stand by my opinion that he does not like being challenged publicly,” Cuban said.

Senior officials from the Harris campaign touted early voting data they said show women voters turning out at a higher clip than men across battleground states and the vice president performing better with that demographic than Trump.

The campaign found women making up 55% of early voters in swing states, according to a senior campaign official who requested anonymity during a briefing call with reporters on Thursday.

The official also downplayed suggestions Trump is enjoying a huge surge in new voters to his campaign, arguing that early voting for the former president was being driven by Republican voters who normally cast ballots on Election Day, rather than an influx of fresh support.

Trump in New Mexico pledged if elected to create a new cabinet post that would be “tasked exclusively with doing everything in the federal government’s power to reduce the cost of living.”

The former president’s 11th-hour campaign pledge is his latest effort to convince voters he is better positioned to address high costs — a top election issue — than his rival Harris.