Two days after President Biden called former President Donald Trump’s supporters “garbage,” a top campaign surrogate for Vice President Kamala Harris implied women around the Republican presidential nominee were weak and dumb — though he later walked back his statement after it sparked widespread fury.
“Donald Trump, you never see him around strong, intelligent women. Ever,” billionaire Mark Cuban said on ABC’s “The View” Thursday.
“It’s just that simple. They’re intimidating to him. He doesn’t like to be challenged by them. Nikki Haley will call him on his nonsense with reproductive rights and how he sees and treats and talks about women. I mean, he just can’t have her around. It wouldn’t work.”
Asked about the remarks in the wake of the resulting firestorm, Cuban clarified to The Post, “I’m not saying strong intelligent women don’t vote for [him]. Everyone makes up their own mind. As it should be,” he said.
He followed with a hair-splitting backpedal.
“What I said was you don’t SEE him with strong intelligent women [like Nikki Haley]. Ever. That’s not to say he has never worked with any (Kellyanne [Conway], Ivanka [Trump], Linda McMahon, etc.) But I haven’t seen him highlight their efforts during the campaign or appear with them,” he explained.
After his eyebrow-raising comment, cohost Joy Behar mused that porn star Stormy Daniels “is intelligent” and her colleague Whoopi Goldberg clarified “he means onstage.”
The “Shark Tank” co-host’s insult triggered a fierce backlash from Trump’s campaign and his female allies.
“Joe Biden called Trump supporters garbage, and now Kamala’s top surrogate Mark Cuban insinuated female Trump supporters are ‘weak and dumb,’” said Trump-Vance campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
We’re here to keep you informed about Election 2024 every step of the way
Subscribe to our special edition newsletter to stay updated on the election stories that matter
Thank you for signing up
“This is extremely insulting to the thousands of women who work for President Trump, and the tens of millions of women who are voting for him. These women are mothers, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders and they are, indeed, strong AND intelligent, despite what Mark Cuban and Kamala Harris say.”
Asked if he would have chosen his words differently in hindsight, Cuban rephrased his initial assertion and provided a handy list of the conservative women he deems intelligent.
“I would probably just add that I’m only speaking to the point that I haven’t seen him side-by-side on the campaign trail with women I consider strong and intelligent. Like Nikki Haley, Kellyanne and Tulsi [Gabbard], among others.”
The Dallas Mavericks partial-owner is set to host a Harris campaign town hall in Atlanta on Thursday after campaigning for her this past weekend in Pittsburgh and appearing alongside her at an Oct. 17 rally in Wisconsin.
Trump had many top female aides during his time in office, including senior counselor Kellyanne Conway, who survived persistent West Wing power struggles involving male detractors and who, despite remaining loyal to Trump, has publicly offered advice on changes he could make during the current campaign.
Other top Trump White House aides included Kayleigh McEnany, a Harvard Law School graduate who was known to offer unvarnished Oval Office advice when matters were being debated among aides, and her predecessor Sarah Sanders, who went on to become governor of Arkansas.
Trump’s wife, Melania Trump, successfully pressured her husband to end then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ “zero tolerance” family separation policy of illegal immigrants at the US-Mexico border, and his daughter Ivanka Trump leaned on her father at critical junctures in his term, including directing a highly sensitive video after the Capitol riot of 2021 to keep him on script to preserve his political future.
