Trump wants to narrow his deficit with women but he's not changing how he talks about them

GASTONIA, N.C. (AP) — Donald Trump says he will be the “protector” of women, whether they like it or not.

He’s campaigned with men who use sexist and crude language and who have expressed alarm at the idea that wives might vote differently from their husbands.

And the former Republican president has suggested that Democrat Kamala Harris, who is trying to become the first woman to win the White House, would get “overwhelmed” and “melt down” facing male authoritarian leaders he considers tough.

In the final days of his campaign, Trump has presented a gendered world view that his critics consider dated and paternalistic, even as he acknowledges that some of that language has gotten him “into so much trouble” with a crucial group of voters.

Trump and some of his most prominent allies have peddled outright sexism.

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, at an event with the Republican presidential nominee, likened Trump to an angry father providing tough love to a “bad little girl” who, as Carlson put it, was "in need of a vigorous spanking.”

Charlie Kirk, founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point, which is playing a key role in the campaign’s get-out-the-vote operation, has said that any man who votes against Trump is “not a man.” Kirk also has said wives who covertly vote for Harris “undermine their husbands” — describing a man “who probably works his tail off to make sure that she can go and have a nice life and provide to the family.”

On Saturday night, Trump laughed along with a crude joke about Harris, nearly a week after a speaker at his Madison Square Garden rally suggested the vice president was like a prostitute controlled by “pimp handlers.” As Trump repeated his claim, made without evidence, that Harris lied about working at McDonalds in her youth, someone in the crowd yelled, “She worked on the corner.”

Trump laughed, looked around and pointed toward a section of the crowd.

“This place is amazing,” he said to cheers. “Just remember, it’s other people saying it. It’s not me.”

Trump has faced a persistent gender gap since Harris entered the race in July. Women are far more likely to say they’re supporting Harris than Trump — by a double-digit margin in some surveys.

That could be enough to prove decisive in what both sides expect to be an extremely close race that ends Tuesday.

Women generally vote at higher rates than men. In 2020, they made up 53% of the electorate, according to AP VoteCast. Among the nearly 67.2 million Americans who have already voted, about 53% are women, versus 44% men, according to TargetSmart, a political data firm.

At the same time, Trump has been aggressively courting men. Trump's team has spent months trying to reach younger men, in particular, with a series of interviews on popular male-centric podcasts and appearances at football games and mixed martial arts fights. His campaign has been dominated by machismo, evident for example when former pro wrestler Hulk Hogan ripped off his shirt as he took the stage at the Republican National Convention and later at the Madison Square Garden rally.

The song “It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World” often plays at Trump's events.

“This is not a time for them to get overly masculine with this bromance thing that they’ve got going,” said Nikki Haley, who competed with Trump for the GOP nomination this year, in a recent Fox News interview. “Women will vote. They care about how they’re being talked to. And they care about the issues.”

Trump has not campaigned with Haley, who was U.N. ambassador during his administration, despite her offers to appear with him.

Trump was always expected to face challenges with women this year after nominating three of the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutionally guaranteed right to abortion and ushering in a wave of restrictions across Republican-led states.

But his efforts to win women back have often landed flat.

Speaking Saturday in Gastonia, North Carolina, at his first of nearly a dozen rallies during the race’s final weekend, Trump acknowledged the blowback he has received for saying that, as president, he would “protect” women. He continued, nonetheless, to repeat the line as he insisted women love him and that he was right.

“I believe that women have to be protected. Men have to be, children, everybody. But women have to be protected where they’re at home in suburbia,” he said. “When you’re home in your house alone and you have this monster that got out of prison and he’s got, you know, six charges of murdering six different people, I think you’d rather have Trump.”

Trump’s campaign believes his focus on crime and illegal immigration will help him win over "security moms.” At his rallies, he has featured the stories of mothers whose children were killed by people in the country who are in the United States illegally. That includes Alexis Nungaray, whose 12-year-old daughter, Jocelyn, was killed by two suspected Venezuelan gang members.

The campaign also believes that Trump's frequent denunciation of transgender rights holds sway.

In Salem, Virginia, on Saturday, Trump brought to the stage female athletes from Roanoke College, where a transgender woman had asked and then withdrew her request to join the women’s swimming team.

In a statement, Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt defended Trump’s approach. "Women deserve a President who will secure our nation’s borders, remove violent criminals from our neighborhoods, and build an economy that helps our families thrive – and that’s exactly what President Trump will do,” she said.

Several attendees at his rallies said they welcome Trump’s promise to be a “protector.”

“I want protection. I mean, we all do, right? We don’t want to feel like we’re not protected,” said Kim Saunders, 52, a small-business owner who lives in Williamsburg, Virginia. “It’s that scary feeling. So for me, it makes me feel really good to have someone protect me and a man protect me.”

She said she could not understand why women would support Harris, but thinks men are drawn to Trump because “he is that alpha male. And for me, I love the alpha male. I grew up with a dad that was an alpha male.”

Harris, meanwhile, has seized on Trump’s remarks, highlighting them in speeches and online.

The vice president has tried to address her own side of the gender gap, appearing on podcasts and doing interviews particularly geared toward Black men, a traditionally Democratic constituency where Trump appears to be making inroads. She was asked in an interview with CNN on Saturday whether she believes women will make the difference in this election.

“I believe all Americans are going to make the difference. And I intend to be a president for all Americans,” she said.

Trump has pushed back on a suggestion by top Harris surrogate Mark Cuban that Trump does not surround himself with strong, intelligent women. Trump notes that he hired women to lead his 2016 and 2024 campaigns.

But as he has tried to undercut Harris, who is the first woman to be elected vice president, Trump has repeatedly turned to gendered language.

“She certainly can’t handle (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, President Xi of China. She will get overwhelmed, melt down and millions of people will die,” he said Saturday.

On Saturday night, he repeated his claim that he is the “father of fertilization,” awkwardly and falsely taking credit for a fertility procedure that was briefly outlawed in Alabama by a state Supreme Court ruling due to the overturning of Roe.

And at recent rallies, Trump, who was found liable for sexual abuse and has been accused by more than two dozen women of sexual misconduct, has noted female supporters in the audience and mused about how he cannot call them beautiful anymore.

“You have to be very careful. Everything you say. You know, like there’s some women that are very beautiful in the audience. I would never say that,” Trump said. “If I said they were beautiful, that’s the end of my political career.”

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally at First Horizon Coliseum, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, in Greensboro, NC. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Supporters arrive before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Gastonia, N.C., Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Supporters attend a campaign rally for Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump in Salem Va., Saturday Nov 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at First Horizon Coliseum, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, in Greensboro, NC. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Supporters react to Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump as he wraps up a campaign rally at First Horizon Coliseum, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, in Greensboro, NC. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Lilly Mullens of the Roanoke College Swim Team, is hugged by Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump, at a campaign rally, Saturday Nov. 2, 2024, in Salem, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

NEW YORK (AP) — The gunman who killed the CEO of the largest U.S. health insurer likely left New York City on a bus soon after the brazen ambush that has shaken corporate America, police officials said. But he left something behind: a backpack that was discovered in Central Park.

Nearly four days after the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, police still did not know the gunman’s name or whereabouts or have a motive for the killing. Investigators were looking at whether the shooter may have been a disgruntled employee or client of the insurer, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters.

The FBI announced Friday night it was offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

Video of the gunman fleeing Wednesday’s shooting showed him riding a bicycle into Central Park and later taking a taxi to a bus terminal that offers commuter service to New Jersey and Greyhound routes to Philadelphia, Boston and Washington, D.C, according to Kenny.

Police have video of the man entering the bus station but no video of him exiting, leading them to believe he left the city, Kenny said.

Investigators on Friday found a backpack in the park that had been worn by the gunman during the shooting, police said, following a massive sweep to find it in a vast area with lakes and ponds, meadows, playgrounds and woods.

Police didn’t immediately reveal what, if anything, it contained but said it would be analyzed for clues.

The gunman made sure to conceal his identity with a mask during almost all of his time in the city, including during the attack and while he ate, yet left a trail of evidence in view of the nation’s biggest city and its network of security cameras.

The gunman arrived in New York City on Nov. 24 and shot Thompson 10 days later outside his company’s annual investor conference at a hotel just blocks from Radio City Music Hall and Rockefeller Center.

The gunman got off a bus that originated in Atlanta and made several stops along the way, Kenny said. Police have not determined where he got on the bus. Investigators have a list of passengers, but none of them would have had to provide an ID when they climbed aboard, Kenny said.

Investigators believe the suspect used a fake identification card and paid cash, Kenny said, when he checked in at the hostel, which has a café along with shared and private rooms and is blocks from Columbia University.

Investigators have tested a discarded water bottle and protein bar wrapper in a hunt for his DNA. They also were trying to obtain additional information from a cellphone found along the gunman’s escape route.

Photos of the suspected shooter that were taken in the lobby of a hostel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side appear to from the only time he removed his mask, Kenny said. The images, showing a man smiling in the lobby of the HI New York City hostel. They are among a collection of photos and video circulated since the shooting — including footage of the attack, as well as images of the suspected gunman at a Starbucks beforehand.

“From every indication we have from witnesses, from the Starbucks, from the hostel, he kept his mask on at all times except for the one instance where we have him photographed with the mask off,” Kenny said.

His roommates at the hostel also said he didn’t speak to them. Nothing of investigative value was found in a search of the suspected shooter’s hotel room.

Asked how close he felt police were to making an arrest, Kenny said, “This isn’t ‘Blue Bloods.’ We’re not going to solve this in 60 minutes. We’re painstakingly going through every bit of evidence that we can come across. Eventually, when an apprehension is made, we will have to present all of these facts to a judge and jury, so we’re taking our time, doing it right and making sure we’re going to get justice for this victim and closure for his family.”

Security video of the shooting shows the killer approaching Thompson from behind, firing several shots with a gun equipped with a silencer, barely pausing to clear a jam while the executive fell to the sidewalk.

Police were looking into the possibility that the weapon was a veterinary pistol, which is a weapon commonly used on farms and ranches if an animal has to be euthanized quietly, Kenny said — though he stressed that hadn’t been confirmed.

The words “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were scrawled on the ammunition, one word on each of three bullets, Kenny said. A law enforcement official previously told The Associated Press the words were “deny,” “defend” and “depose.” The messages mirror the phrase “delay, deny, defend,” which is commonly used by lawyers and critics about insurers that delay payments, deny claims and defend their actions.

Thompson, a father of two sons who lived in a Minneapolis suburb, had been with Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare since 2004 and served as CEO for more than three years.

The insurer’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group Inc., was holding its annual meeting in New York for investors. The company abruptly ended the conference after Thompson’s death.

UnitedHealth Group said it was focused on supporting Thompson’s family, ensuring the safety of employees and assisting investigators. “While our hearts are broken, we have been touched by the huge outpouring,” the company said.

UnitedHealthcare provides coverage for more than 49 million Americans. It manages health insurance coverage for employers and state and federally funded Medicaid programs.

In October, UnitedHealthcare was named along with Humana and CVS in a Senate report detailing how its denial rate for prior authorizations for some Medicare Advantage patients has surged in recent years.

The shooting has rocked the health insurance industry in particular, causing companies to reevaluate security plans and delete photos of executives from their websites. A different Minnesota-based health care company said Friday it was temporarily closing its offices out of an abundance of caution, telling employees to work from home.

Balsamo reported from Washington. Jake Offenhartz, Cedar Attanasio and Karen Matthews in New York, John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed to this story.

Members of the media line a sidewalk outside the HI New York City hostel, Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, in New York, where police say the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson may have stayed. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

This image provided by the New York City Police Department shows a man wanted for questioning in connection to the investigation of the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (New York City Police Department via AP)

Traffic rolls past the George Washington Bridge Bus Station in New York, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, near where the gunman fleeing Wednesday's shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson took a taxi to, according to surveillance video. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Pedestrian walk outside George Washington Bridge Bus Station in New York, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, where the gunman fleeing Wednesday's shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson took a taxi to, according to surveillance video. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Traffic rolls past the George Washington Bridge Bus Station in New York, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, where the gunman fleeing Wednesday's shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson took a taxi to, according to surveillance video. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Pedestrians cross the road outside George Washington Bridge Bus Station in New York, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, where the gunman fleeing Wednesday's shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson took a taxi to, according to surveillance video. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Commuters wait for buses at the George Washington Bridge Bus Station in New York, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, where the gunman fleeing Wednesday's shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson took a taxi to, according to surveillance video. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Commuters wait inside the George Washington Bridge Bus Station in New York, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, where the gunman fleeing Wednesday's shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson took a taxi to, according to surveillance video. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

A New York City Police officer walks through brush and foliage in Central Park near 64th Street and Central Park West, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, in New York, while searching for a backpack police believe was dropped in the park by the person suspected of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)

This still image from surveillance video obtained by the Associated Press shows the suspect, left, sought in the the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, center, outside a Manhattan hotel where the health insurer was holding an investor conference, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo)

This image provided by the New York City Police Department shows a man wanted for questioning in connection to the investigation of the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (New York City Police Department via AP)

A New York City Police officer walks through brush and foliage in Central Park near 64th Street and Central Park West, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, in New York, while searching for a backpack police believe was dropped in the park by the person suspected of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)