More violence by Trump's male supporters against women at voting locations

This demands more attention!

Caleb James Williams who was arrested for threatening female Harris supporters

This week we have seen two deeply alarming incidents of violence, threats and abuse directed by Donald Trump’s male supporters against women at polling locations. And tragically this will likely not be the last given a core theme of Trump’s “bro vote” strategy has been amplifying sexism and misogyny—as we saw again at his rallies this week.

First, there was the very disturbing incident in Florida where a group of Trump supporting male teens went to a voting  location with the express intention to harass and intimidate people supporting Vice President Harris. As the police reported, 18-year-old Caleb James Williams-a white teenager—along with his other young male friends went to an early voting location in Neptune, Florida—waving Trump flags and chanting “Trump!” Their goal—per the chief of police--was to “antagonize the opposing political side.”

But then Williams went from simply yelling at Harris supporters to taking out a nearly two-foot machete which he “aggressively brandished” in a “threatening posture over his head” toward two women, ages 71 and 54 years old.  The 71-year-old victim reported that Williams approached her with the machete raised above his head in an intimidating manner, causing her to fear for her safety.  Williams was arrested on felony charges of aggravated assault.

In response, The Republican Party of Duval County responded on social media by praising the police but not denouncing Williams. Instead, they appeared to blame Democrats for inciting the crime, writing that they “urge calm” in this time “of heightened political tension, especially as President Trump has survived two assassination attempts and Republican supporters have been unfairly labeled as Nazis and called ‘garbage’ by Joe Biden.”

But then again, the leader of the GOP Trump is an adjudicated rapist who incited the Jan 6 terrorist attack. If they are on board with Trump, they are of course fine with violence by their supporters against women supporting Democrats.

Then on Thursday, we learned about a male Trump supporter at a South Carolina voting location caught on video verbally and physically attacking Black female poll workers who told him he couldn’t wear his pro-Trump hat near the polling place. South Carolina law bars people from wearing anything within 500 feet of a polling location that displays a political party, candidate name or ballot issue. But the Trump supporter doesn’t think the law applies to him—especially when Black female poll workers are trying to enforce it.

When one female poll workers nicely said, “You’re not gonna be able to wear that,” the Trump supporter loudly responded, “You fucking bitch!” In response, the poll worker calmly stated, “Sir, listen, don’t cuss at me–.” At that point the man angrily declared, “This is my motherfuckin’ right right here!”

In response, the female poll workers said, “We cannot serve you! We’re gonna move on.”  The man then appeared to raise his hands to the face of one female worker causing the two to slap each other. The man became even more irate as four other Black female workers tried to protect the woman—with the man pushing these women backwards. As of this now, the local authorities are investigating the incident.

All this Trump supporting man had to do was remove his hat when asked by a Black female poll worker, but he was not having that. And why would he?

Trump’s campaign has been a buffet of sexism, racism and misogyny by design. Trump has been running for the past two months a “bro vote” strategy--as Politico detailed—focused on appealing to men. That’s why Trump has appeared on countless podcasts that cater to men—especially younger ones—despite many of the hosts having a checkered past when it comes to sexism and demeaning women. But why would Trump be troubled by that given his own record of both.

And Trump’s closing message this week has very much featured sexism. At Trump’s hate rally Sunday at Madison Square Garden, speaker after speaker served up sexist garbage. As the NY Times put it, the event was a “Carnival of Grievances, Misogyny and Racism.”

Trump told the crowd to cheers that VP Harris is a "very low IQ individual." Another speaker, Grant Cardone said VP Harris and “her pimp handlers will destroy our country,” obviously suggesting Harris is a  prostitute and a whore. David Rem a person the campaign identified as a childhood friend of Trump, brandished a crucifix and called Vice President Kamala Harris “the antichrist” and “the devil” to huge applause. And Tucker Carlson said to cheers if Harris wins she will be “the first Samoan, Malaysian, low IQ former California prosecutor ever to be elected president.” 

We also heard Trump during his interview with Joe Rogan released Friday night say broadly, “Some of these women, they’re so stupid.”  To Trump, any women who dares criticize him is “stupid.”

And at his rally in Wisconsin on Wednesday night, Trump told the audience that his aides told him to no longer say the line he’s been repeating, telling women, “I will be your protector. Women will be happy, healthy, confident, and free. You will no longer be thinking about abortion!”

Trump said some of his staff noted the line of “I want to protect the women” was “very inappropriate.”  But Trump made it clear he doesn’t care what his staffers have to say, bellowing out at the rally: “Well, I’m going to do it whether the women like it or not.”

Given Trump’s history of bragging about sexually assaulting women in the Access Hollywood tape, his recent comments expressing sympathy for rapist Harvey Weinstein and his own legal case where he was adjudicated a rapist, it’s truly unnerving to hear Trump say, “Well, I’m going to do it whether the women like it or not.”

Trump’s campaign has become so toxic that even GOP’s Nikki Haley this week publicly criticized his strategy for being “overly masculine with this bromance thing.” But Trump sees the polling that makes it clear he’s losing women in massive numbers.  He has to lean into the toxic masculinity. That means we will see Trump spew even more sexism and misogyny which could animate Trump’s male supporters to threaten, intimidate or even assault women who are seen as opposing Trump.

First, Trump and the GOP came for a woman’s reproductive freedom. Now they are coming for their right to freely vote. Those are the stakes.

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