Whitmer calls Trump ‘just deranged’ after weekend comments on women and abortion

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said Sunday former President Trump is “just deranged” after he said women won’t be thinking about abortion if he’s elected in November.

“That’s just ludicrous,” Whitmer, a co-chair of the Harris-Walz campaign, said in an interview on “State of the Union” with CNN’s Jake Tapper about Trump’s remarks.

She said Trump doesn’t understand the problems women face every day.

“I think, you know, this guy just doesn’t understand what the average woman is confronting in her life in this country, and how could he? He’s not lived a normal life,” Whitmer said. “Unlike Kamala Harris, who has worked hourly jobs, who knows how important it is that women have health care and access to the medical care that they need.”

“He’s just deranged,” she added.

The Michigan governor was responding to Trump’s comments at a rally Saturday afternoon, where he said, “Women will be happy, healthy, confident and free. You will no longer be thinking about abortion.”

He said the reason women will be happy is that the issue is sent back to the states.

The former president made similar remarks in an online post Friday on his Truth Social platform, suggesting that women would be better off if he were president.

 “WOMEN ARE POORER THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO, ARE LESS HEALTHY THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO… AND ARE LESS OPTIMISTIC AND CONFIDENT IN THE FUTURE THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO!” Trump wrote Friday.

He argued that if he’s elected, those feelings will be fixed, and “YOU WILL NO LONGER BE THINKING ABOUT ABORTION, BECAUSE IT IS NOW WHERE IT ALWAYS HAD TO BE, WITH THE STATES.”

Trump’s statement Friday night came hours after Vice President Harris gave an abortion-focused speech in Georgia, where she spoke about the pain experienced by women in states with abortion bans and placed the blame for their suffering squarely on Republicans and her GOP rival.

Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung responded in an emailed statement, blasting Democrats for using “hateful rhetoric.”

“Kamala Harris and liberal Democrats are the ones who are deranged. There have been two heinous assassination attempts on President Trump, and their violent rhetoric are directly to blame. Their outright lies and weaponization of the justice system to perpetuate countless witch-hunt hoaxes against President Trump have been nothing short of disgusting and abhorrent,” Cheung said in the statement. 

“If the Democrats and Kamala Harris do not come out and apologize for their hateful rhetoric and tone down their attacks that have stoked the flames of violence, they are explicitly advocating for and inciting more bloodshed against President Trump,” he added.

Story updated at 12:06 p.m. EDT