Trump Calls Kamala Harris ‘Retarded’ During a Donor Dinner: Report
Donald Trump is an insult machine — worse, he is an insult machine that has no bottom, particularly it seems when he’s feeling frustrated, not getting his way, and there’s a woman he wants to blame. Trump recently referred to his Democratic presidential nominee opponent Kamala Harris as “retarded,” according to The New York Times.
Trump has apparently become more frustrated as the election draws closer, and any semblance of decorum seems to be fading. This should not be shocking to anyone paying attention to the dude this country elected in 2016 who has shown from the beginning that he has little respect for women, having been caught on tape in 2005 saying as a celebrity he could “grab them by the pussy,” yet, surprise, here we are.
Per the Times, back in September, the Republican presidential nominee had a dinner meeting at New York’s Trump Tower with donors that included some bigwigs — billionaire hedge-fund manager Paul Singer, who finances Republican campaigns and pro-Israel causes; billionaire investment banker Warren Stephens; and billionaire Joe Ricketts and his son Todd among them. Rather than charming them, however, he berated them for not doing enough and disparaged his competition to boot, calling Harris “retarded” and whining about how many Jews were backing her, an apparent affront when he believes he’s done so much for the state of Israel.
He also touted how much he’d done for those in the room, according to seven anonymous people the Times spoke to who had knowledge of the meal, noting he’d been great for the taxes of those in attendance, despite that not being the case for all. His financial stress has fed into his behavior: Harris has raised $1 billion in the less than three months she’s been a candidate — more than Trump has finagled in a year of campaigning.
Trump has had to spend more time kowtowing to donors over rallying, according to the report, due to security concerns, although he seems to be doing plenty of rallying with two rallies this weekend, and not spending as much time on the golf course. Still, his spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told the outlet money wasn’t a concern. “Kamala Harris has spent hundreds of millions of dollars and is still performing worse than any Democrat who has ever ran against President Trump. Meanwhile, President Trump is in a better financial position than ever before, and he’s leading in the polls,” she said.
In late September, Trump also called Harris “mentally disabled” during one of his anti-migrant rally rants in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.
It’s not the first time he’s been publicly called out for referring to a woman as “retarded.” He had previously referred to Academy Award-winning actress Marlee Matlin as “retarded” while she was a contestant on his show The Apprentice in 2011, according to The Daily Beast’s 2016 report, where three anonymous longtime staffers said Trump “would regularly disrespect the actress and would even treat her as if she were mentally disabled.”
He would, according to the report, insult her behind her back and also to her face. In one instance, he had written on a note one of the staffers found: “Marlee, is she retarded??” Another said he mocked her voice, and a different source outlined a time Trump was “insensitive” directly to Matlin, when he made a comment about her deafness while filming an episode.
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