Vice President Kamala Harris attacked former President Donald Trump on Thursday for saying he would “protect” women from violent illegal immigrants – with the Democratic presidential candidate accusing her opponent of “not understanding their ability” to stand up for themselves. protect.

Trump, 78, made the remark while wearing a garbage vest at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, shortly after ride in a dump truck Wednesday, to troll outgoing President Biden’s description of his supporters as “waste” and pledged to protect women “whether they like it or not.”

“Look, it’s just – I think it’s actually very offensive to women because they don’t understand their free will, their authority, their right and their ability to make decisions about their own lives, including their own body”, Harris, 60 years old. , told Wisconsin reporters.

“This is just the latest in a series of revelations from the former president about what he thinks about women and their agency – whether he said, as he did, that women should be punished for their choices, if he spoke of his pride in depriving women of a fundamental right.

Harris and her campaign posted a very short version of Trump’s remarks on social media, generating millions of views just days before the November 5 election.

Trump made the comment while criticizing Harris’ performance as Biden’s point person on reducing illegal immigration, which hit three consecutive annual highs under her leadership before falling since Biden’s order in June limiting the processing of asylum applications.

“Anyone who would let monsters kidnap and kill our children has no place near the Oval Office,” the Republican presidential candidate said at the rally.

Trump said his advisers urged him not to say publicly that he wanted to “protect” women and told him: “Sir, please don’t say that… it’s very inappropriate of you to say it. »

“I said, ‘Well, I’m going to do it whether the women like it or not. I will protect them. I will protect them from the arrival of migrants; I’m going to protect them from foreign countries that want to hit us with missiles,” Trump said.

The ex-president added: “We will protect our women at the border. We will protect our women, but also our men and our children. We will protect everyone.

Trump concluded his thought by asking, to the cheers of the crowd: “Is there a woman in this stadium who wants to be protected by the president?”

Polls suggest an incredibly close race in swing states between Trump and Harris, with the vice president maintaining a sizable lead among women and Trump leading among men. Both campaigns and their outside supporters are trying to turn out low-propensity voters who might be motivated by last-minute appeals and perceived slights.