Trump, Denying Sexism Helped Bring Down Warren, Says Something Sexist About Her

While political pundits fight over what exactly went wrong for Elizabeth Warren, one thing is reasonably agreed upon: The former Harvard law professor was one of the 2020 contest’s most qualified candidates, one whose unrivaled policy expertise became an unlikely but rousing campaign trademark. 

Not according to Donald Trump. Nope. While speaking at a press conference on the coronavirus Friday, the president offered his own take on the situation.

“I think lack of talent was her problem, she has a tremendous lack of talent,” Trump said, denying that gender politics had played a role in Warren’s downfall.

“She’s a very mean person, and people don’t like her,” he continued, inadvertently but ever-reliably deploying sexism with the very statement. “People don’t want that.”

Then in perhaps his most ridiculous political observation, Trump asserted that voters “like a person like me, that’s not mean.”

Fact check: Donald Trump is a very mean person. We’ll have some video evidence for you in a moment.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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