Democratic candidate Kamala Harris said that the "remarks about women" made recently by her Republican rival Donald Trump were "very offensive."
At a campaign rally in Wisconsin on Wednesday, Trump slammed Democratic President Joe Biden and his administration on immigration, claiming they allowed "imported criminal migrants" to cross the US border and to "assault, rape, and murder our women and girls."
After stating that "anyone who would let monsters kidnap and kill our children does not belong anywhere near the Oval Office," Trump explained how he plans to "protect" women despite his team advising him against using the line as he claimed they deemed it "inappropriate."
Outfitted in an orange construction worker vest, the former President told his followers:
"My people told me about four weeks ago, I would say 'no, I want to protect the people."
"I want to protect the women of our country. I want to protect the women."
"I said, 'Well, I'm going to do it, whether the women like it or not, I'm going to protect them."
The MAGA crowd roaringly approved.
You can watch a clip of the rally speech here.
Before going out to campaign in the swing states of Arizona and Nevada, Harris said in response to Trump's comment about "protecting" women "whether they like it or not" demonstrated he doesn't comprehend anything about women's "agency, their authority, their right and their ability to make decisions about their own lives, including their own bodies.”
She continued:
"This is just the latest on a series of reveals by the former president, how he thinks about women and their agency."
"Whether he said as he has that women should be punished for their choices, whether he has talked about his pride in taking away a fundamental right from women."
"Whether it be how he has actually created a situation in America where now 1 in 3 women lives in a Trump abortion-banned state and has legal restrictions…she rightly should have to make decisions about her own body."
You can watch the CNN interview clip here.
Social media users thought Trump's remarks exposed his inherent misogyny.
Trump and Republicans continue struggling to tackle the issue of abortion after they have rolled back protections on women's health, economic security, and overall rights under his administration.
And despite his contradictory claim of wanting to "protect" women as he says, he hasn't provided examples of how he aims to achieve this, not even a "concept of a plan," as he famously stated about his endeavor to replace the Affordable Care Act.