Washington Post political reporter David Weigel has a new piece up about how Donald Trump might have a chance to do well this November in largely white suburbs that have been reliably Democratic in most recent elections. The piece focuses in particular on Trump’s strong primary performance in the area around Philadelphia; one of the sources interviewed is Ed Rendell, who served as both Philadelphia mayor and Pennsylvania governor. Rendell is a Democrat who supports Hillary Clinton, and he makes the case that … well, see for yourself:
“Will [Trump] have some appeal to working-class Dems in Levittown or Bristol? Sure,” said Ed Rendell, the former Pennsylvania governor and Philadelphia mayor, who won landslides in the suburbs. “For every one he’ll lose 1½, two Republican women. Trump’s comments like ‘You can’t be a 10 if you’re flat-chested,’ that’ll come back to haunt him. There are probably more ugly women in America than attractive women. People take that stuff personally.”
Ah, the famed ugly woman firewall.
For what it’s worth, Weigel is suggesting on Twitter that Rendell was joking and shouldn’t be getting grief for the comment, but I’ve been staring at it for a few minutes now and can’t figure out any other way to interpret it besides that Ed Rendell genuinely thinks that some women will be less likely than others to support Donald Trump because they are ugly.
