51¶ÌÊÓƵ

“I think it’s offensive to everybody, by the way,� the Democratic presidential nominee said before she set out to spend the day campaigning in the battleground states of Arizona and Nevada.

The remarks by Trump come as he struggles to connect with women voters and as Harris courts women in both parties with a message centered on freedom. She says women should be free to make their own decisions about their bodies and that if Trump is elected, more restrictions will follow.

Trump appointed three of the justices to the U.S. Supreme Court who formed the conservative majority that overturned federal abortion rights. As the fallout from the 2022 decision spreads, he took to claiming at public events and in social media posts that he would "protect women" and make sure they wouldn't be "thinking about abortion."

At a rally Wednesday evening near Green Bay, Wisconsin, Trump told his supporters that aides urged him to stop using the phrase because it was "inappropriate."

Then he added a new bit — he said he told his aides: "Well, I'm going to do it whether the women like it or not. I am going to protect them."

Harris said the remark was part of a pattern of troubling statements by Trump.

"This is just the latest on a long series of reveals by the former president of how he thinks about women and their agency," the vice president said.

Trump's comments increased the sniping between the campaigns as both vie for women voters, who generally compose the majority of the electorate. Harris surrogate Mark Cuban, the billionaire businessman, said in an interview with "The View" that Trump doesn't surround himself with "strong, intelligent women — ever."

Cuban's remark drew swift rebukes from women involved in Trump's political operation, with his campaign chief, Susie Wiles, saying in a rare social media post that she's "proud to lead this campaign." Campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt also went after Cuban, saying he had "insinuated female Trump supporters are 'weak and dumb.'"

Trump posted on X that Cuban was “very wrong,� and lashed out at him as “a fool" and a "MAJOR LOSER."

“All strong women, and women in general, should be very angry about this weak man's statement," the post read.

The dispute showed signs Thursday of further entrenching each candidate's supporters.

It was not only women who described Trump's remarks as offensive. At the Harris rally in Phoenix, Edison Kinlicheenie, 50, said he sees Trump more as a threat than a protector, noting that the former president has a track record of preying on women.

"I have a wife and a daughter, so I wouldn't let no predator like that come around" them, Kinlicheenie said.

At a Trump rally in Albuquerque, Sarah Pyle, 41, cited the opposition to allowing transgender athletes to compete in women's events to portray Trump as someone who helps women.

"I don't want my girls to grow up in a world like this," the Albuquerque mother said, referring to the controversy. "We fought for women's rights for so long, and now we're giving them back to men. It makes no sense."

More broadly, Trump and Republicans struggle with how to talk about abortion rights, particularly as women around the nation grapple with obtaining proper medical care because of abortion restrictions that have implications far beyond the ability to end an unwanted pregnancy.

Trump gave contradictory answers about his position on abortion, at some points saying that women should be punished for having abortions and showcasing the justices he appointed. During his successful 2016 campaign, he told voters that if he were elected, he would appoint justices to the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade and said he was "pro-life."

In recent weeks he claimed he would veto a national abortion ban after repeatedly refusing to make such a pledge. He says states should regulate care and that some laws were "too tough."

Since 2022, the patchwork of state laws on abortion created uneven medical care. Some women died. Others bled in emergency room parking lots or became critically ill from sepsis as doctors in states with strict abortion bans send pregnant women away until they are sick enough to warrant medical care. That includes women who never intended to end pregnancies. Both infant and maternal mortality has risen.

Harris' campaign highlighted Trump's statements around women. In one campaign ad, a woman who became gravely ill with sepsis after a pregnancy complication stands in front of a mirror looking at a large scar on her abdomen, as audio plays of Trump's comments about protecting women.

Harris hopes abortion will be a strong motivator for women at the ballot box.

In early voting so far, 1.2 million more women than men voted across the seven battleground states, according to data from analytics firm TargetSmart.

That doesn't necessarily translate into Democratic gains, but in the 2020 presidential election, there was a 9 percentage point difference between men and women in support for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 110,000 voters.

The Democratic ticket was supported by 55% of women and 46% of men. That was essentially unchanged from the 2018 midterms, when VoteCast found a 10-point gender gap, with 58% of women and 48% of men backing Democrats in congressional races.