A nasty feud that escalated Thursday between Donald Trump and his chief Republican rival over their wives set off a new wave of alarm among establishment Republicans, who fear the GOP front-runner would drive away female voters in a general-election fight with likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Trump’s gender problem flared again this week as he and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas traded insults while Cruz’s wife, Heidi, became the target of vitriol on social media from Trump and his supporters. At one point, the real estate mogul retweeted an unflattering image contrasting Heidi Cruz’s appearance with his wife, Melania, a retired model.
“The images are worth a thousand words,” the caption read on the photo that Trump retweeted to his 7.2 million followers.
That message and others have prompted an outcry among Republicans and Democrats alike, while Cruz said Thursday that “real men don’t bully women.”
“Our spouses and our children are off-bounds,” Cruz told reporters while campaigning in Dane, Wisconsin. “It is not acceptable for a big, loud, New York bully to attack my wife. It is not acceptable for him to make insults, to send nasty tweets.”
He added: “Donald, you’re a sniveling coward. Leave Heidi the hell alone.”
PRIMARY NASTINESS
The altercation underscores the striking nastiness of the GOP primary race and the uncomfortable gender politics surrounding Trump, who has a long history of making incendiary remarks about women and their appearances. Trump has shown little reluctance in attacking his female rivals – or some of his rivals’ spouses – in ways that strike many as sexist or demeaning, and many fear the insults are a harbinger of the gutter rhetoric to come if he faces Clinton in November.
Trump has called Clinton “very shrill,” belittles her for a lack of stamina and energy, and late last year jabbed her and husband, Bill Clinton, for the latter’s marital indiscretions while he was president. In another instance, Trump said Hillary Clinton “got schlonged” in her 2008 primary fight against then-Sen. Barack Obama.
“I have some very real concerns should he become the nominee. I think it would be catastrophic for our party,” said GOP strategist Katie Packer, who leads the anti-Trump Our Principles super PAC. “Half of the reason why I’m fighting so hard to stop Donald Trump is because I think he’s a walking, talking stereotype of a sexist misogynistic pig.”
Polling shows Trump sliding sharply among women in recent months, hurting the GOP’s already shaky position with that demographic. Trump’s favorability numbers have decreased 10 points among women nationwide since November, to 23 percent, while his unfavorable number among women has jumped from 64 percent to 75 percent, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll taken earlier this month.
The changes among men have been less pronounced, with 37 percent now favorable and 59 percent unfavorable. In the states that have voted so far, Trump received an average of 41 percent of the male vote and 34 percent of the female vote.
15-year-old melania trump photo
The fight with Cruz began earlier this week when Make America Awesome, an anti-Trump super PAC, circulated ads on Facebook featuring a risque photograph of Melania Trump from a 15-year-old GQ magazine cover. It was part of a concerted push to diminish the billionaire among values voters in Utah.
“Meet Melania Trump. Your next first lady. Or, you could support Ted Cruz on Tuesday,” the ad read.
Trump, who went on to lose the Utah caucuses, excoriated Cruz and issued a threat via Twitter: “Be careful, Lyin’ Ted, or I will spill the beans on your wife!”
Trump – who wrongly alleges that Cruz was behind the ad – defended the tweet on Fox Business News Channel Wednesday, saying it was a “disgraceful” and “terrible thing” that demeaned his wife, “a very, very successful model.”
Then came Wednesday night, when Trump retweeted the unflattering image of Heidi Cruz, setting off a fresh series of condemnations.
To Trump’s critics, the attacks on Cruz are just the latest in a troubling pattern of reducing women to their physical appearance and disparaging them in exceptionally personal ways.
Exhibit A is the long-running, on-again-off-again feud with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, whom Trump called “crazy” and “average in so many ways” during a series of tweets last week. Fox News said the name-calling is part of a “sick obsession” that “is beneath the dignity of a presidential candidate.”
WORRIES OF WHAT WOMEN THINK
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham, R-South Carolina, a former presidential candidate and an outspoken critic of Trump, said on MSNBC Thursday, “I’m worried that young women think that the standard-bearer of the Republican Party believes that Megyn Kelly is a bimbo.”
GOP strategists fear that Trump clinching the nomination could present a real opportunity for Democrats, who are poised to choose the first female presidential nominee .
Marcy Stech, communications director at Emily’s List, which has endorsed Clinton, said “the Republican base might find this amusing, but the reality is that these are just the kinds of misogynistic and outrageous comments that will cause lasting damage with women voters.”
She added, “We’ll have plenty of opportunities to remind women voters of this moment even after today’s news cycle has blown over.”
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