Clinton camp rips Trump’s ‘out-of-touch’ maternity leave plan

by Ben Kamisar - 09/13/16 3:31 PM ET

Hillary Clinton’s campaign is downplaying Donald Trump’s new maternity leave proposal, calling it insufficient and discriminatory.

“After spending his entire career — and this entire campaign — demeaning women and dismissing the need to support working families, Donald Trump released a regressive and insufficient ‘maternity leave’ policy that is out-of-touch, half-baked and ignores the way Americans live and work today,” Maya Harris, a top Clinton policy aide, said in a Tuesday statement.

{mosads}”The lack of seriousness of this proposal is no surprise given his history of disrespecting women in the workplace and the fact there’s no evidence he ever provided paid family leave or childcare to his own employees.”

Trump on Tuesday evening will roll out his plan, calling for six weeks of unemployment insurance benefits for new mothers as well as a larger plan meant to make child care spending tax-deductible.

The Clinton campaign called the proposal discriminatory for limiting benefits to only new mothers.

“Studies have shown that providing paid leave to new mothers, but not to new fathers, negatively affects women’s return to the workplace, can discourage employers from hiring or promoting female employees, and can increase the gender pay-gap,” a statement said.

“By only providing leave to new mothers, Trump’s plan also undercuts working dads, including gay couples and single-fathers.”

Tags Donald Trump Hillary Clinton