Harris: Trump remark on protecting women whether they like it or not 'offensive'

Vice President Harris slammed former President Trump for saying at a rally on Wednesday that he would be women’s “protector,” a phrase he used two months ago and again this week at a rally in Wisconsin.

She addressed specifically Trump’s claim that his advisers had counseled him against describing himself a “protector” for women and he said “I’m going to do it whether the women like it or not. I’m going to protect them.”

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

She added, “whether he has said, as he has, that women should be punished for their choices, whether he has talked about his pride is taking away a fundamental right of women, whether it be how he has actually created a situation in America where one in three women lives in a Trump abortion ban state.”

The Democratic nominee also responded on social media to the clip of Trump at his rally. He made the remark this week in the context of protecting women from migrants committing crimes after entering the country illegally.

“My people told me about four weeks ago, I would say, ‘No, I want to protect the people. I want to protect the women of our country. I want to protect the women,'” Trump said at a Green Bay, Wis., rally.

“They said, ‘Sir, I just think it’s inappropriate for you to say.’ I pay these guys a lot of money. Can you believe it?” Trump continued. “I said, ‘Well, I’m going to do it whether the women like it or not. I’m going to protect them. 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.'”

The exchange comes less than a week before Election Day, as the former president struggles to close the gender gap between him and the vice president.

Harris aides quickly seized on the comment from the rally and argued Trump’s comments showed Trump does not care about female voters.

“Defining line of this campaign? Trump: ‘I’m gonna do it whether the women like it or not,'” Harris campaign spokesperson James Singer posted on X.

“Saying the quiet part out loud there,” Lauren Hitt, another Harris campaign aide, posted on X.

Trump at a late September rally sought to directly address the women in the crowd, telling them, “I am your protector. I want to be your protector. As president, I have to be your protector. I hope you don’t make too much of it. I hope the fake news doesn’t go, ‘Oh, he wants to be their protector.’ Well, I am. As president, I have to be your protector.”