GOFFSTOWN, New Hampshire: Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump each launched fresh attacks against the other on Monday, signalling that harshly negative closing arguments may dominate the final two weeks of the campaign.
Clinton’s campaign tried to build on its case that Trump doesn’t respect women, while Trump again questioned the integrity of the election process — this time asserting that polls showing Clinton ahead across the country are “phoney” and “rigged”.
Perhaps the most intense rhetoric of the day came from Senator Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts, one of Clinton’s top allies, who said Trump’s disregard for women would be his undoing in the election. As Trump continued to suggest that he might not accept a Clinton victory on November 8, Warren seemed to revel in the role that women may play not only in defeating him but also in electing the first female president in the nation’s history.
“I’ve got news for you, Donald Trump,” Warren said, standing on a windswept stage in this college town alongside Clinton and US Senate candidate Maggie Hassan — and riffing on Trump’s reference to Clinton as a “nasty woman” during their third presidential debate. “Women have had it with guys like you. And nasty women have really had it with guys like you. Yeah, get this, Donald: Nasty women are tough, nasty women are smart, and nasty women vote.”
Although the Clinton campaign has been working for weeks to portray Trump as a misogynist, allies and surrogates jumped on his latest utterance to continue the effort. Pop star Katy Perry wore a T-shirt emblazoned with “Nasty Woman” while knocking on dormitory doors at George Mason University in the Washington suburbs of Northern Virginia. Other merchandise, including cross-stitch pillows and coffee mugs, popped up for sale on the internet.
“He thinks because he has a mouth full of Tic-Tacs that he can force himself on any woman within groping distance,” Warren said on Monday, referring to a 2005 video in which Trump lewdly described forcing himself on women and then took the breath mints as he explained he liked to kiss women without asking permission.
With just 15 days left until Election Day, Trump spent Monday in Florida, telling supporters that the national media has deliberately skewed polls to undermine his candidacy and that he is actually winning.
During a discussion with farmers at Bedner’s Farm Fresh Market in Boynton Beach, Florida, Trump devoted nearly half of his seven-minute public remarks to criticising the news media.
“I believe we’re actually winning,” he said, speaking in a thatched-roof structure adorned with decorative gourds. He asserted that the majority of public opinion polls, which show Clinton leading nationally and in most battleground states, reflect the “crooked system, the rigged system I’ve been talking about since I entered the race”.
“What they do is they show these phoney polls where they look at Democrats, and it’s heavily weighted with Democrats, and then they’ll put on a poll where we’re not winning, and everybody says, ‘Oh they’re not winning’,” he added.
His campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, acknowledged on Sunday that her candidate trails Clinton, saying, “We are behind.” But Trump said on Monday that he trusts the two polls that have shown him leading — Investor’s Business Daily and Rasmussen — as more reliable.
Later on Monday, as Trump campaigned in St Augustine, Florida, his supporters said they were unfazed by Trump’s “nasty woman” comment or Warren’s attempts to raise it.
“Pocahontas has lied before,” said Cleta Van Horn, 78, of St Augustine, referring to a disparaging nickname Trump often applies to the senator from Massachusetts.
Van Horn was seated at the rally next to her daughter, Laura Nelson, 47, also of St Augustine. Nelson said she also was not bothered by Trump’s remark and Democratic attempts to use it against him.
“I think they are overblowing everything,” said Nelson, who passionately waved a Trump-Pence sign over her head when the GOP nominee took the stage.
Among Clinton supporters, however, there was evidence of a ripple effect of Trump’s remark.
Diana Hess, a Clinton supporter who is now an advocate for people with disabilities, said that the phrase has ricocheted across her social circle on social media and elsewhere.
“My friends have been saying to me: ‘We’re nasty women who vote’,” said Hess, 58. “We took it as a call to action. Women don’t deserve to be treated the way they’ve been treated by Donald Trump.”
Trump then turned his fire on Clinton’s use of a personal email server while secretary of state. He said the FBI and Justice Department had inappropriately let her off the hook.
“We have to investigate the investigation, folks,” Trump said.
Trump on Monday also addressed the latest accusations of inappropriate sexual contact made against him, saying of the accuser, an adult film performer, “Oh, I’m sure she’s never been grabbed before.”
Calling into WGIR radio’s “New Hampshire Today,” Trump characterised the allegations against him as “total fiction,” including the behaviour alleged by Jessica Drake. On Saturday, she accused Trump of grabbing her and kissing her without permission and offering her money to go up to his hotel room about a decade ago.
“She’s a porn star,” Trump said. “You know, this one that came out recently, ‘he grabbed me and he grabbed me on the arm.’ Oh, I’m sure she’s never been grabbed before.”
Trump also seized on a Wall Street Journal report that the political action committee of Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a leading Clinton supporter, gave $452,500 to a Northern Virginia state Senate candidate last year.
The candidate, Jill McCabe of Loudoun County, Virginia, is married to FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who oversaw the bureau’s investigation into Clinton’s use of the private server. The state Democratic Party reportedly gave McCabe’s campaign another $207,788.
Trump called the donations “absolutely disgraceful” and alleged without presenting evidence that “Hillary knew this money was being paid”.
