March 6, 2020

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.

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We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

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