Chris Wallace To Trump: How Can You Win Election When Women And Hispanics Hate You?
After a hiatus of a few weeks, GOP Presidential frontrunner and cherisher of women Donald Trump made his triumphant return to the Sunday shows by appearing on Fox News Sunday. While it was a typical Trump interview, full of fact-free boasts and an adherence to his Trumpian talking points, host Chris Wallace did attempt to inject some reality into the conversation.
After the former reality TV star claimed that the majority of those protesting his rallies are paid agitators, Wallace instructed that professional protesters or not, a huge number of Hispanic voters are turned off by Trump. He wanted to know how he expected to win in November with this big deficit among Latinos.
From Fox News’ transcript of the interview:
WALLACE: But, Mr. Trump, it isn’t just as you say professional agitators. You’ve angered a lot of people in this country beyond even the illegal immigrants. In a recent poll, 15 percent of Hispanic voters have a favorable view of you, 81 percent unfavorable.
I don’t have to tell you, you cannot win in November with those numbers.
TRUMP: Well, I say those numbers are going way up once I start going. I have two more people I have to get rid of, I started off with 17, and one by one I knocked them off. I knocked off Jeb Bush who was easy. I knocked off Walker. I knocked off a lot of very talented people, and frankly I have to — you know, I have to do what I have to do.
Now once I start on Hillary, you’ll see the numbers change. I mean, look, when I started this, everybody said, well, he’s not — I’m not a professional politician, which is a good thing, by the way, but it’s true.
Mmmmkay. So, according to Donald J. Trump, once he starts really attacking Hillary Clinton, Hispanics will forget that he called them rapists and criminals and switch their vote for him. Got it!
After Trump rattled off some incoherent babble about Hillary, negative ads and Indiana, Wallace shifted to his standing among women, pointing out that his negatives with female voters are nearly as bad as with Hispanics. The Fox anchor brought up Trump’s repeated use of the “woman’s card,” and wanted to know how he’ll attract women voters after dismissing Clinton due to her gender.
Trump’s response — double down on using the term and attack Hillary some more about being a woman.
WALLACE: Let’s talk about your standing with women, too. In that same poll that showed you overwhelmingly negative among all Hispanic voters 24 percent of women have a favorable view of you, 75 percent unfavorable.
And yet in your victory speech on Tuesday night, here is what you had to say about Clinton.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I think the only card she has is the woman’s card. She’s got nothing else going. And frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don’t think she’d get 5 percent of the vote.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: Now, I’ve got to tell you, strategists in both parties say if you consciously went about it, if you specifically planned you couldn’t have said anything that would drive your numbers among women even lower.
TRUMP: Really? OK. Well, I’m my own strategist and I like that — what I said and it’s true. I only tell the truth and that’s why people voted for me.
WALLACE: Well, wait — wait a minute.
TRUMP: And don’t forget, in the Republican primaries which I just beat by Cruz by numbers — like 50 percent, I was up by so much, I had 62 percent in New York and I was 63 percent and 64 percent —
(CROSSTALK)
WALLACE: Mr. Trump, with all due respect, whether or not you like — let me just ask the question.
TRUMP: But, Chris, all of the polls coming out, I won with the women by landslides, I beat Cruz and I beat Kasich —
(CROSSTALK)
WALLACE: I understand, but Hillary Clinton is a different —
TRUMP: I won with the women by landslides, you don’t mention that.
WALLACE: — is a different deal.
And regardless of whether you like her or not, or think that she should be president or not, to say — I mean, she was a senator, she was secretary of state for four years. To say if she were a man, she’d get 5 percent — isn’t that kind of dismissive?
TRUMP: Well, Bernie Sanders said a lot worse than that. He said that she almost shouldn’t be allowed to run, that she’s not qualified to run and she’s not capable.
I mean, Bernie Sanders, what he said was a lot worse than what I said and I’m going to use that. We’ll have that teed up. But Bernie Sanders said she shouldn’t be allowed to run, that she’s not capable.
And, you know, what he said is incredible. It’s a sound bite. It’s an — in fact, as soon as he said it, they broke in and they said, I can just imagine Donald Trump watching these statements Bernie Sanders has made — is making about Clinton.
So, look, she’s a strong person. She’s going to have to be able to take it. The fact is, the only card she has is the woman’s card. She’s done a lousy job in so many ways and even women don’t like her. They don’t like her.
But it is the woman’s card and she plays it, and I’ll let you know in about six months whether or not she plays it well. But I don’t think she’ll play it well. I don’t think she’ll play it well at all. And it’s true, if she were not a woman, she wouldn’t even be in this race.
Yep, that will really pull in the female vote, Donald. Maybe you can bring up again how disgusting it was for her to have the audacity of using the bathroom.
