As tens of millions of Americans head to the polls on Tuesday, U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump used crude, misogynistic language to attack former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at his final campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Pelosi is “evil, sick, crazy,” he said, before reaching for another word that, he said, began with “bi—.” “It starts with a B, but I won’t say it,” Trump said, adding, “I want to say it!” Some rally attendees yelled back: “Bitch!”
This is not the first time that Trump and his campaign have harnessed sexist insults to attack female opponents. At Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, one speaker likened Harris to a prostitute, declaring that she “and her pimp handlers will destroy our country.” At another rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, when an attendee yelled that Harris “worked on the corner,” Trump laughed and said, “This place is amazing.” “Just remember,” he added, “it’s other people saying it. It’s not me.”
Yet that kind of language could also complicate Team Trump’s bid to broaden its appeal with female voters, as I’ve reported for Foreign Policy. Nationally, women tend to lean Democratic and have higher voter turnout than men. Nikki Haley, a former Republican presidential candidate who backs Trump, has warned that the former president’s macho messaging may not land with female voters.
“This is not a time for them to get overly masculine with this bromance thing that they’ve got going,” she told Fox News. “Women will vote. They care about how they’re being talked to. And they care about the issues.”
This post is part of FP’s live coverage with global updates and analysis throughout the U.S. election. Follow along here.