CNN
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When Sarah Huckabee Sanders confronted what she described as “relentless assaults from the left,” it was former President Donald Trump who comforted her, she stated.
Trump legal professional Alina Habba described the Republican nominee as her “buddy.”
And Kai Trump, his oldest grandchild, made a surprise appearance to share “the facet of my grandpa that individuals don’t usually see.”
A typical theme rang by way of speeches from ladies at this 12 months’s Republican National Convention: Regardless of how Trump’s public remedy of girls could appear to some, he’s an advocate for them behind closed doorways.
In speech after speech in Milwaukee this week, ladies spoke of quiet moments once they stated Trump comforted them within the wake of Democratic assaults or media criticism, advocated for them professionally or confirmed compassion or familial care. They described him as a buddy and a loving father and grandfather within the moments folks don’t see.
Trump has lengthy been identified for the brash, even vulgar approach he generally speaks about ladies. He has additionally been dogged by allegations about sexual misconduct and extramarital affairs. Accusations of sexism plagued his 2016 presidential marketing campaign, a race he gained regardless of the October release of a video by which he bragged about having the ability to seize ladies by their genitals as a result of he’s a celeb.
Speeches from ladies, together with his members of the family and individuals who have labored for him, match right into a broader effort on the conference to melt his public picture.
“I used to be insulted as a visitor on the White Home Correspondents Dinner, my household was denied service and kicked out of a restaurant, and a dad or mum at my 3-year-old son’s preschool spit on my automobile,” Sanders, who served as one in every of Trump’s White Home press secretaries, stated throughout her Tuesday night address. “And in these moments, it was President Trump who defended me.”
Sanders, now the governor of Arkansas, stated at one level the previous president pulled her apart and instructed her, “Sarah, you’re sensible, you’re lovely, you’re powerful, they usually assault you since you’re good at your job.”
Habba, one in every of Trump’s legal professionals, stated she wished to take the viewers “behind the headlines” to disclose “his character, his kindness” and his dedication to the nation.
“President Trump championed my journey, empowering me to be who I grew to become as we speak,” Habba stated.
Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s 2016 marketing campaign supervisor and White Home senior counselor, praised the previous president for elevating ladies to key roles in his marketing campaign and administration.
“He noticed one thing in me and the opposite working mothers that maybe we didn’t see in ourselves,” Conway stated.
Relations, from his granddaughter – who stated the previous president bragged to buddies when she made the glory roll – to his son’s companions shared their private experiences with him.
“I do know what you hear on the market about Donald Trump,” Lara Trump, the previous president’s daughter-in-law and the co-chair of the Republican Nationwide Committee, stated in her speech. “However once I have a look at Donald Trump, I see a beautiful father, father-in-law and, in fact, grandfather to my two younger youngsters, Luke and Carolina.”
The hassle to reframe Trump’s remedy of girls was half of a bigger push to soften the previous president’s picture within the wake of the assassination attempt final weekend.
“The media’s unfavorable portrayal of President Trump and his remedy of girls is fully false,” Karoline Leavitt, the Trump marketing campaign’s nationwide press secretary, stated in an announcement. “President Trump is beloved by thousands and thousands of girls throughout the nation, and those that know him personally, myself included, will let you know he’s supportive, beneficiant, and type.”
Leavitt added that in Trump’s first time period he supported insurance policies resembling increasing entry to paid family leave and youngster care and that he would accomplish that once more.
Broadening the previous president’s attraction to ladies shall be key in November. Biden’s success in swing states in 2020 is attributable partially to his stronger help amongst ladies turned off by Trump’s brashness. In 2020, Biden gained 57% of girls, in contrast with 42% who backed Trump, in keeping with CNN exit polls.
Nevertheless it’s not clear whether or not reward of the previous president’s non-public conduct will impression how folks understand years of his public conduct. Trump had confronted allegations of sexism since he sought the Republican nomination in 2016.
Throughout a 2015 GOP main debate, moderator Megyn Kelly requested then-candidate Trump about his historical past of referring to ladies he disagreed with as “fats pigs, canines, slobs and disgusting animals.” He later blasted Kelly and said she had “blood popping out of her wherever.”
Throughout that first marketing campaign, he insinuated that each Carly Fiorina, one in every of his Republican opponents, and the spouse of Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, one other 2016 rival, have been unattractive.
And within the closing weeks of that election, outdated Entry Hollywood footage of him bragging about having the ability to kiss ladies and seize them by their genitals prompted mass condemnation from members of his personal get together.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his 2016 Democratic opponent, argued that Trump’s previous remedy of girls made him unfit to be president.
“Once I take into consideration what we now learn about Donald Trump and what he has been doing for 30 years, he positive had spent lots of time demeaning, degrading, insulting and assaulting ladies,” Clinton said at a Florida rally days earlier than the election.
Clinton’s loss, and fears over what a Trump presidency would entail, prompted global Women’s March protests.
Since then, different components of his background have been scrutinized. Earlier this 12 months, Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying enterprise information to cowl up an alleged extramarital affair with a porn star. In 2023, a civil courtroom found Trump liable of sexually abusing author E. Jean Carroll within the Nineties. The previous president was later ordered to pay millions of dollars in damages for his defamatory statements disparaging Carroll and denying her rape allegations.
Trump has denied the affair on the middle of the hush cash case and denied assaulting Carroll.
The previous president has additionally denied about a dozen other sexual misconduct allegations, together with groping and sexual harassment, that came about earlier than he took workplace. In 2017, Trump known as the claims “fake news.”
Sanders, the White Home press secretary on the time, was requested whether or not the White Home’s official place was that each one the ladies have been mendacity.
“Yeah, we’ve got been clear on that from the start, and the president has spoken on it,” she stated at an October 2017 press briefing.
For a lot of the 2024 marketing campaign, Democrats have centered their criticisms of Trump on his insurance policies, particularly his appointment of Supreme Courtroom justices who voted to overturn federal abortion protections. However as President Joe Biden has confronted elevated strain inside his personal get together to step aside, he has began to broaden his assaults. Throughout a rally in Detroit earlier this month, Biden referenced each the hush cash case and the civil case involving Carroll.
“Mr. Trump raped her,” Biden stated, referencing what the decide within the Carroll case wrote.
In Milwaukee, nevertheless, Trump’s legal circumstances have been framed as additional proof of persecution he’s suffered for his supporters.
“Each assault on President Trump solely strengthens our motion,” stated Habba, who represented Trump within the Carroll defamation go well with. “Sham indictments and baseless allegations is not going to deter us, as a result of the one crime President Trump has dedicated is loving America.”