'Maligned, belittled, harassed, insulted': New Lincoln Project campaign ad calls out Trump's treatment of women

Ad asks female voters to ‘imagine a different future’

Republican anti-Trump group, the Lincoln Project, has released a scathing new ad highlighting the president's mistreatment of women, as the campaign seeks to drive home Joe Biden's advantage among female voters heading into the final two weeks of the race for the White House.

The ad, published on Friday, views November's election through the eyes of girls and young women, contrasting the characters of Mr Trump, 74, and Mr Biden, 77, and their attitudes towards women, pointing out the latter has chosen senator Kamala Harris as his "right-hand women".

In a direct pitch to mothers yet to cast their ballots in what has been described as the most important US election in living memory, the video's narrator says: "Imagine a young girl looking in the mirror, searching for role models in the world to give her hope that she too can one day make a difference," against a backdrop of images showing prominent US women Condoleezza Rice, former secretary of state, and the late supreme court justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

"Now imagine how she feels when she watches women being verbally attacked," the narrator adds before the video cuts to footage of the president denigrating a female reporter for what he claimed was "a stupid question". "I watch you a lot, you ask a lot of stupid questions," the president adds.

"Maligned, belittled, harassed, insulted," the narrator continues, over audio of Mr Trump describing senator Harris as a "monster" following last week's first and only presidential debate. "Your daughters are listening and absorbing that message, right in front of your eyes."

Titled 'Girl In The Mirror', the video then asks the viewer "to imagine a different future" for their daughters, "a future with a president who doesn't just value a female voice but chooses one to be his right-hand woman," before displaying a series of images of senator Harris, 55, on the campaign trail, including last week's VP debate, when she faced off against Mike Pence, who repeatedly interrupted her.

"A strong woman, a woman with compassion, a woman unafraid to take on a bully," the narrator adds, as the video shows senator telling Mr Pence: "Mr vice president, I am speaking” - a line that has come to define the debate between the two candidates.

"A woman who not only believes in the American dream but embodies it," the narrator says of senator Harris. "Imagine that little girl in the mirror. Because that little girl is yours. And your actions on 3 November will define who she sees. Vote for change. Vote for her."

The latest Lincoln Project ad comes just days after the president essentially begged for the votes of suburban women. At a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, Mr Trump - who has faced accusations of sexual assault - pleaded: "Suburban women, will you please like me?" before going on to claim that he had "saved" their neighbourhoods, referring to an Obama-era anti-segregation rule that his administration repealed.

Female voters are expected to play a crucial role in November's election because analysts predict they will turn out in greater numbers than men. In 2016, 58 per cent of voters were female against 53 per male. The president benefitted from the high turn out, but female voters have been deserting him ever since because of his combative and aggressive approach to politics.

Meanwhile, Mr Biden's support among female voters continues to surge. He leads the president by 59 per cent to 36 per cent among women likely to vote, according to the latest Washington Post/ABC poll. The former VP's advantage soars to 28 percentage points among suburban women. The two candidates are more evenly matched when it comes to male voters and are both on around 48 per cent.

The Lincoln Project is a political action committee formed in late 2019 by several current and former Republicans. The goal of the committee “is to prevent the reelection of Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election and defeat his supporters in the United States Senate,"  according to the group’s website.