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\u201cYou don’t mind if I go off teleprompter for a second, do you?\u201d Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump<\/strong> asked his Pennsylvania crowd at a campaign rally on Saturday\u2014less than four minutes into his speech<\/a>.<\/p>\n What followed was a long-winded, meandering address that featured Trump insisting that he is more attractive than his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Time<\/em> magazine\u2019s latest cover<\/a> features a sketch of Harris with the words \u201cHer Moment,\u201d accompanying an article by senior correspondent Charlotte Alter<\/strong>. Harris\u2019s likeness, illustrated by Neil Jamieson<\/strong>, fades into images of supporters holding campaign signs. When Trump first saw the image, he claimed, \u201cI said, \u2018is that Sophia Loren<\/strong><\/a>?\u2019 I couldn’t, who might that be? \u2018Is that Elizabeth Taylor?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n He then calls Loren beautiful before warning U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick<\/strong>, who Trump was campaigning with, to \u201cnever call a woman beautiful because it\u2019ll be the end of your political career.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump then goes after a \u201cRonald Reagan speechwriter,\u201d presumptively Wall Street Journal<\/em> columnist Peggy Noonan<\/strong><\/a>. Noonan has written about Harris\u2019s appearance in recent weeks<\/a>, saying that, \u201cHer beauty, plus the social warmth that all who have known her over the years speak of, combines to produce: radiance.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe said one thing that got me,\u201d Trump began, seemingly talking about Noonan\u2019s columns. \u201cShe said Kamala has one big advantage, she\u2019s a very beautiful woman. She\u2019s a beautiful woman.\u201d The crowd boos.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I say that I\u2019m much better looking than her. Much better. Much better. I\u2019m a better looking person than Kamala,\u201d Trump continued, to cheers.<\/p>\n As the Democratic National Convention kicks off<\/a> in Chicago on Monday, Trump and his team have been trying to hone an effective defense<\/a> against what has become an energized movement to elect Harris and Tim Walz<\/strong>, the governor from Minnesota and presumptive democratic vice presidential candidate. But Saturday\u2019s remarks illustrate the challenge Trump’s campaign advisors face when pushing a strategy that requires Trump to focus on policy, rather than demeaning Harris\u2019s intelligence and racial identity, or hurling other personal insults.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s comments on Saturday critiquing Harris\u2019s attractiveness were the latest attack in what has been a misogynistic and racist campaign against the first Black and South Asian woman selected to lead a major party ticket.<\/p>\n During an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists in late July, Trump falsely claimed<\/a> that Harris has misconstrued her multiracial identity. \u201cShe was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know she was Black until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn Black and now she wants to be known as Black.\u201d<\/p>\n Harris is \u201cnot smart enough<\/a>\u201d to do a news conference and is \u201cbarely competent<\/a>,\u201d Trump has also said. In addition, according to reporting from The New York Times<\/em>, he’s allegedly called<\/a> Harris a \u201cbitch\u201d multiple times in private.<\/p>\n On the eve of the DNC, a new CBS News\/YouGov survey<\/a> has the two candidates tied in battleground states, with Harris three points ahead nationally. Much of the divide among voters, the poll found, has to do with gender. Women respondents were more likely<\/a> to see Harris as someone who “fights for people like you.\u201d Only 29% of men said that Harris would fight \u201ca lot\u201d for people like them, while 43% of men answered that Donald Trump would do just that.<\/p>\n And, when asked if efforts to promote gender equality between men and women have gone too far, men and Republicans were far more likely to say yes<\/a>, with only 10% of Republicans answering that efforts are not going far enough.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n