'This is a message for men': Ex-White House staffer shreds Trump's 'creepy' remarks
CNN's Kate Bedingfield was creeped out by Donald Trump's obtrusive attempt to win over skeptical women voters, and the former White House communications director questioned who the message was actually intended to reach.
The former president told women at a Pennsylvania that he was "your protector" and promised to make them "safe" from illegal immigrants, crime and "foreign enemies," and he promised that they would not longer need to worry about many of the issues that define this year's election.
"You will no longer be abandoned or scared, you won't be in danger any longer," Trump said, echoing statements he made on Truth Social. "You will no longer have anxiety from all of the problems our country has today. You will be protected and I will be your protector. You will be happy, healthy, confident and free. You will no longer be thinking about abortion.”
ALSO READ: The week Fox News finally faces its reckoning
Bedingfield, who served president Joe Biden in the first two years of his presidency, doubted those remarks would appeal much to any women.
"My God, where there are so many places," Bedingfield began. "Okay, first of all, I think Trump has no understanding of why he has a problem with women. First of all, this is, like, creepy, like, bizarre messaging, but it's – he's talking at women, not to them, which is a problem that I think Republicans have across the board. It's like they think of women as this sort of other entity. That's not a message to women. That's talking at women, which I actually think this is a message for men, not for women."
"I think what Trump is doing here is saying what he thinks men want to hear. It's, you know, he's trying to like double down on this idea of like alpha strength, so I actually think this is not intended to be a message for women," she continued. "I think, you know, the Trump campaign has made clear that, you know winning men is a huge piece, a huge pillar of their strategy."
"I can't imagine a world where women hear that and say, 'This is a guy who understands things that I'm going through and would be a president with empathy for me,'" Bedingfield added. "So I think that's him like tripling down on trying to win men."
- YouTube youtu.be