“What a stupid question,” President Donald Trump snapped at a female reporter aboard Air Force One on Monday, then said it again.
Trump was flying to Waterford Township, Michigan, when a reporter asked why he wanted the Senate to stay in Washington instead of heading home to campaign ahead of November’s midterm elections.
The bill at issue is the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act. It would require voters to show proof of citizenship to register. The Senate has twice voted it down, 48-50, according to Democracy Docket.
During the flight, a reporter pressed him on the issue.
“On the Senate, on the SAVE Act, why do you want the U.S. Senate to stay in town?” she asked. “Shouldn’t they be out across the country campaigning?”
“What a stupid question,” Trump said.
“Should they be out and be campaigning though?” she pressed.
“What a stupid question,” Trump said again — then appeared to address CBS News senior White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs, an Iowa native he has known since the 2016 caucuses, mid-answer. “Because Jennifer asked such a stupid — she’s a smart person.”
“So listen, why do I want — the SAVE Act has to be done,” Trump said. “They shouldn’t leave town. I’m not gonna stop them from doing it, but they should get the SAVE Act done.”
Trump has a documented history of calling female reporters “stupid,” “ugly,” “piggy,” “horrible,” and “incapable” — language press freedom groups have called “an unmistakable pattern of hostility,” Axios reported last year.
In May, Trump called ABC News senior political correspondent Rachel Scott “one of the worst reporters” after she asked about renovation costs at the Lincoln Memorial, NBC Right Now reported.
Days later, he told MS NOW reporter Akayla Gardner, “I doubled the size of it, you dumb person. You are not a smart person,” HuffPost reported.
“He doesn’t do this as often to men reporters as he does to women reporters,” a George Washington University political science professor told HuffPost.
The four Republican senators who have voted against the SAVE Act are Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and Thom Tillis (R-NC), Senate voting records show.
In addition to the SAVE Act, Trump has rolled out a comprehensive plan to influence the midterm elections. The Justice Department has sued 30 states and Washington, D.C., seeking to force them to hand over unredacted voter rolls — and has lost all 17 cases to reach a ruling, according to Democracy Docket.
Federal law bars broad voter-roll purges within 90 days of an election — putting Aug. 5 as a key practical deadline for the administration’s parallel push, Idaho Public Press reported.
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