Sturgeon kicks out at Trump and May (but Merkel is OK)
MISOGYNY marred the US election, Nicola Sturgeon said yesterday as she launched a deeply personal attack on Donald Trump at a high-profile event.
Speaking in New York, the SNP leader praised defeated candidate Hillary Clinton – saying she has been a ‘trailblazer’ for women in politics.
She also attacked Theresa May, saying they share little in common other than they ‘both like shoes’.
During an onstage interview with US journalist Tina Brown at the Women in the World summit in the Lincoln Center, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘I’ve got to be careful, I’m an outsider looking in to US politics and I am here as a guest to the United States just now – I want to be allowed back in future.
‘Observing the race from afar, in many respects I found it quite dispiriting. Not just because of the things the now President was saying, but the whole tone and tenor of the campaign seemed quite dispiriting.
‘The way in which Hillary was talked about, the treatment she suffered, seemed to have an air of misogyny about it that I like to – I wanted to – believe we had moved on from. And it seemed to me that race was an illustration we had not moved far enough on from that.
‘I look at Hillary and she has been a trailblazer for women in politics, whatever you think about her politics. I find so many of her qualities admirable – her sheer resilience I find utterly amazing. But she has made it easier for women like me in politics and for that I and women across the world really owe Hillary Clinton a debt of gratitude.’
Miss Sturgeon was interviewed at the event shortly after a talk by actress Scarlett Johansson and just before Mrs Clinton appeared onstage.
Asked what she would say to the former First Lady if she met her backstage, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘I’ve got to be careful I don’t act like a fangirl.’ She also said she finds German Chancellor Angela Merkel ‘inspirational’ – and ‘admired’ how she spoke out about Mr Trump the day after the US election.
Miss Sturgeon’s criticism of the President came despite admitting during her taxpayer-funded trip to the US this week that she would be willing to meet him if he came to Scotland.
The First Minister also attacked Mrs May for failing to stop the so-called ‘rape clause’, which only allows women to receive tax credits for any more than two children if they have had a child as a result of being raped.
Miss Sturgeon called it ‘a disgusting and disgraceful policy’.
Asked about the PM, she said: ‘We both like shoes, which is a good starting point.’
She added: ‘I hope that we can build a constructive working relationship but it takes two to do that, and we’ll see if we get on any better in the future.’
‘The campaign was dispiriting’