Donald Trump’s Campaign Manager: ‘Rape Would Not Exist’ If Women Were As Strong As Men

It appears Donald Trump — and his campaign staff — just cannot do without saying controversial things about women.

The Republican nominee’s views on women are well-known and well-documented. Trump’s distasteful exchanges with Fox News host Megyn Kelly, as well his constant berating of women during the campaign trail, have reinforced perceptions that Trump is a misogynist of the highest order. His policy positions on issues that directly concern female voters, such as those on abortion, have hardly proved otherwise.

Basically, Trump seems like a man who would rather blame women for their position than the deeply patriarchal social constructs that restrict women from enjoying the same privileges as men do in our society.

And now Donald Trump might find himself emboldened further by having Kellyanne Conway, his new campaign manager, to support him in his utterly misogynistic tirades. Ostensibly brought in to help Trump improve his historically bad standing among women voters, it does not seem like Conway is cut out for the job.

Although a woman herself, Conway does not appear empathetic to even the most pressing of women’s concerns, and as well as sharing Trump’s regressive views on the role of women in our society, she now seems like the worst mouthpiece that Trump’s campaign could have recruited to disseminate its rampantly patriarchal views.

Kellyanne Conway: "If women were as physically strong as men, rape would not exist." So it's still the woman's fault if she gets raped.

— born miserable (@bornmiserable) August 30, 2016

In a recently surfaced video that was shot just after the Pentagon lifted the ban on women in combat roles, Trump’s new campaign manager says that “rape would not exist” if women and men had equal physical capabilities, reports CNN.

Conway was participating in a roundtable discussion with other women panelists about the policy change which later aired on PBS’ On the Contrary in January 2013. After pointing out that there shouldn’t be separate boy and girl versions of the fitness tests used to determine combat readiness, she went on to argue that rape wouldn’t even exist if only women were as strong as men.

“If we were physiologically — not mentally, emotionally, professionally — equal to men, if we were physiologically as strong as men, rape would not exist. You would be able to defend yourself and fight him off.”

Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway: ‘Rape would not exist’ if women were strong enough https://t.co/eUVKzNbaD6 pic.twitter.com/B0ZlkeLjc8

— Raw Story (@RawStory) August 31, 2016

These comments have assumed a new importance in the light of Kellyanne Conway’s appointment as Trump’s new campaign manager. As Variety reports, after a slew of controversial remarks — and, in fact, actions — by both Trump and senior members of his campaign staff, the Republican nominee must have been hoping to undo some of the damage by appointing Conway, who, as GOP pollster Frank Luntz put it, “understands women better than anyone in America” as his campaign manager. But going by the evidence at hand, it would be naive to assume that Conway is the panacea to Trump’s women problems. By all accounts, Kellyanne could only accentuate the chasm between Trump and American women even further.

Conway’s remarks, which were resurfaced by an anti-Trump super PAC, the Democratic Coalition Against Trump, have already drawn widespread ire. The group’s national finance director, Francesca Lucia, said American voters will have to reconsider their options before it gets out of control.

“We cannot have a reality show in the White House; the stakes are just too high, especially for women,” she said.

Lizz Winstead, who founded Lady Parts Justice and Artists Against Trump, slammed the comments on The Daily Show.

“Most people who think like Donald Trump would only express their views in private, because they’re shameful. But not Kellyanne Conway. Not Eric Trump, when he said that Ivanka wouldn’t allow herself to be subject to sexual harassment. And certainly not Donald Trump himself. They seem to think it’s acceptable to blame rape victims for their assaults, deny women the right to control their own health care, and downplay sexual harassment in the workplace. It’s not.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5GToosCD7k

[Photo by Gerald Herbert/AP Images]