Indiana, Sep 25: From former president Donald Trump to Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, male Republican candidates are struggling to speak to female voters, using language criticised as tone deaf and patronising as they try to win support from women and speak to issues important to them.
On Monday night, Trump cast himself as a “protector” of women, saying in battleground Pennsylvania that he will save them from fear and loneliness and they will no longer have to think about abortion.
“You will no longer be abandoned, lonely or scared. You will no longer be in danger. … You will no longer have anxiety from all of the problems our country has today,” Trump said. “You will be protected, and I will be your protector.”
At a town hall event on Friday, Moreno bemoaned the fact that abortion has become the deciding issue for many suburban women, calling the notion “a little crazy, by the way, but especially for women that are like past 50. I’m thinking to myself, I don’t really think that’s an issue for you”.
Former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley responded with exasperation to Moreno in a social media post. “Are you trying to lose the election?” she asked.
“Asking for a friend. #Tonedeaf #DonLemonVibes.” The latter was a reference to former CNN anchor Don Lemon’s suggestion during the 2024 campaign that Haley, at 51, was “past her prime”.
The comments underscore the GOP’s challenges in appealing to women, especially when it comes to the issue of abortion. The problem has become amplified since Vice President Kamala Harris replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket.
Women have emerged as a core weakness for Trump’s campaign, and he is viewed less favourably by women than men. A September AP-NORC poll found more than half of registered voters who are women have a somewhat or very favourable view of Harris, while only about one-third have a favourable view of Trump.
The gender gap – the difference between the share of men and women who say they’re supporting each candidate – has been in the double digits for Trump and Harris in several recent polls. That split has been attributed, in part, to Trump’s role in appointing the Supreme Court justices who overturned the constitutional right to an abortion – a ruling he continues to celebrate at his events.
“Women will be healthy, happy, confident and free. You will no longer be thinking about abortion,” Trump said on Monday, insisting the issue “no longer pertains”, even as women living in Republican-led states grapple with a wave of new restrictions that have left emergency rooms refusing to treat pregnant women and been linked by ProPublica to at least two preventable deaths.
Instead of helping Trump expand his appeal with women, such language is likely to turn them off, argued Debbie Walsh, the director of the Centre for American Women and Politics at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.
Trump’s pledge to protect women is also complicated by his long history of personal attacks against women as well as a jury’s finding last year that he sexually abused a magazine columnist decades earlier in a department store dressing room.
Trump’s campaign dismissed the criticism as coming from partisan voices and said Trump’s comments reflected his voters’ top issues.
‘Harris has bigger cognitive problems’
Trump has claimed that Harris has a “bigger cognitive problem” than President Biden, who pulled out of the White House bid after a disastrous debate performance.
Fears over 81-year-old Biden’s age and mental state grew after the June 27 debate between him and Trump.
Addressing an election rally in the battleground state of Georgia, Republican Party presidential candidate Trump said the world is “laughing” at Harris.
“You know what they’re really laughing at? Kamala, because they can’t believe that she’s going to be president. They can’t believe it,” Trump said.
“You talk about cognitive problems? She’s got bigger cognitive problems than he (Biden) has, in my opinion,” Trump alleged.
“This is how we’re going to end the era of inflation and mayhem, misery. Under Kamala and Crooked Joe, we had such misery. Think about what we’ve been through with inflation, with the wars all over the world,” he said.
Routh charged with attempting assassination
A man who authorities say staked out Trump for 12 hours on his golf course in Florida and wrote of his desire to kill him was indicted Tuesday on an attempted assassination charge.
Ryan Wesley Routh had been initially charged with two federal firearms offenses. The upgraded charges contained in a five-count indictment reflect the Justice Department’s assessment that he methodically plotted to kill the Republican nominee, aiming a rifle through the shrubbery surrounding Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course on an afternoon Trump was playing on it. Routh left behind a note in which he described his intention, prosecutors said.
‘Real assassination threat from Iran’
US intelligence agencies have briefed Trump on the “real and specific” threat to his life allegedly from Iran to allegedly “sow chaos” in the country, according to his campaign.
Two apparent assassination attempts have been made in the same number of months on the life of the 78-year-old Republican presidential candidate.
“President Trump was briefed earlier today by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence regarding real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in an effort to destabilise and sow chaos in the United States,” Steven Cheung, Trump’s Campaign communications director said. (Agencies)
