(Note sexual language in paragraph 2)
(Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Wednesday reposted a lewd social media remark about Vice-President Kamala Harris, the latest in a volley of demeaning attacks by Republicans against Trump’s Democratic rival.
The comment was made by another Truth Social media user, who wrote, below a picture of Harris and Trump’s 2016 Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton: “Funny how blowjobs impacted both their careers differently…”
The remark appears to be a reference to former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who briefly dated Harris over two decades ago. A frequent right-wing line of attack against Harris is that Brown fueled her political ascent. The Clinton jab is a reference to her husband, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who had an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky in the 1990s.
Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller told CNN in an interview on Thursday that he had seen the social media post but had not discussed it with Trump, adding that he did not know if Trump “even saw the comment that was on there or simply the picture.”
The Harris campaign, Brown, Hillary Clinton, and Bill Clinton also did not immediately respond.
Trump’s amplification of the post comes amid a torrent of racist and sexist attacks from him and his allies against Harris, the first woman and first Black and South Asian person to serve as U.S. vice president.
Since replacing President Joe Biden atop the Democratic ticket, Harris has surged in the polls and now leads Trump in most recent national surveys.
Trump has struggled to fully adjust to the new race, and still often muses about facing Biden, 81, in the Nov. 5 presidential election.
Trump has called Harris “crazy,” “nuts” and “dumb as a rock,” and has falsely suggested that she previously downplayed her Black heritage. Some of Trump’s donors and advisers want him to hew more closely to critiques of his rival’s policies, and members of the “Black Americans for Trump” coalition have warned that disparaging Harris could hurt him in his outreach to Black voters.
Trump has repeatedly defended his use of personal attacks.
Last year, Trump was found liable of sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll. Trump denied the allegations.
(Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer; additional reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington. Editing by Kieran Murray, Neil Fullick and Ros Russell)
