"Lack of talent." Unlikable. "Mean." President Donald Trump laced into former Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren on Friday, insisting that sexism wasn't to blame for the end of the Massachusetts senator's presidential campaign, even as he used attacks often directed at female politicians.
Speaking to reporters as he signed an emergency $8.3 billion funding package to help tackle the coronavirus outbreak, Trump was asked whether he thought sexism had anything to do with Warren's departure from the Democratic presidential race.
"No, I think lack of talent was her problem. She has a tremendous lack of talent," Trump responded. The president commended her debate performances, saying she "was a good debater" who had "destroyed" the candidacy of former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg "like it was nothing."
"She's a very mean person. ... People don't want that. They like a person like me, that's not mean."
After moderator Megyn Kelly confronted Trump during the first Republican debate of the 2016 cycle over his comments about women, Trump later said of her: "You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever."