Harris campaign surrogate Mark Cuban’s suggestion that women in Donald Trump’s orbit are weak and dumb is blowing up on her campaign even as the furor continues to rage over President Biden’s dismissal of Trump supporters as ‘garbage.’
‘Donald Trump, you never see him around strong, intelligent women. Ever,’ Cuban said during an appearance on ABC’s ‘The View’ Thursday. ‘It’s just that simple. They’re intimidating to him. He doesn’t like to be challenged by them and, you know, Nikki Haley will call him on his nonsense with reproductive rights and how he sees and treats and talks about women. I mean, he just can’t have her around. It wouldn’t work.’
The comments resulted in a firestorm of criticism from Trump supporters – both men and women.
‘Obviously, I wasn’t talking about Nikki Haley, and I wasn’t talking about all Trump supporters,’ Cuban told Fox News Digital. ‘That’s ridiculous.’
Asked if he would have chosen his words differently in hindsight, Cuban said: ‘I would probably just add that I’m only speaking to the point that I haven’t seen [Trump] side-by-side on the campaign trail with women I consider strong and intelligent. Like Nikki Haley, Kellyanne [Conway] and Tulsi [Gabbard], among others.’
Cuban also sought to add context with a post on X, formerly Twitter, shared Thursday afternoon, noting that he knows ‘many strong, intelligent women voting for Trump,’ citing members of his ‘extended family’ as an example. He also said that women who have worked for Trump in the past, such as Ivanka Trump and Kellyanne Conway, represent ‘strong, intelligent women.’
Cuban stated in his post on X that he still stands by his opinion that Trump ‘does not like being challenged publicly.’
Meanwhile, In a statement to Fox News Digital, Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt called Cuban’s comments ‘extremely insulting to the thousands of women who work for president Trump, and the tens of millions of women who are voting for him.’
‘These women are mothers, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders, and they are, indeed, strong and intelligent, despite what Mark Cuban and Kamala Harris say.’
She added: ‘The joy at Kamala HQ has been replaced by division, vitriol, and a disturbing level of disrespect for the millions of Americans who are supporting President Trump after four years of destruction under Kamala Harris.’
Biden called Trump supporters ‘garbage’ during a Zoom call with Hispanic voters earlier this week. During Cuban’s appearance on ‘The View,’ he argued Biden’s remarks did not ‘matter at all.’
Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.