Trump ridicules Senator Jon Husted’s hands at Texas rally
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President Donald Trump used a Texas campaign stop to mock Senator Jon Husted’s appearance while urging support for Attorney General Ken Paxton, drawing criticism for a crude and distracting performance that did nothing to address the actual issues in the Senate race.
President Donald Trump addressed a rally in Texas on Tuesday, using Senator Jon Husted’s hands as part of a broader, theatrically unserious effort to push voters toward Attorney General Ken Paxton in the upcoming Senate race. Trump said he had first commented on Husted’s appearance and then described the senator’s “hands… fingers like sausages,” adding that he had patted Husted on the shoulder and praised him.
Trump also floated the idea of using the same kind of taunting against Paxton, while openly suggesting he was not sure the tactic was appropriate. The remarks came after he made a similar comment at a rally in Michigan the previous day.
"Maybe I should do that with Ken Paxton. But I’m not sure your body is going to qualify," Trump said, pointing to the Texas attorney general.
Media commentator Lawrence O’Donnell condemned the comments, saying they reflected a bizarre fixation on a senator’s physical traits that the Texas audience was unlikely to know and had no reason to care about.
"Now Donald Trump is taking it to the point of identifying those body parts as things he likes to eat," O’Donnell said.
Polls cited in the event’s coverage showed that Husted’s Democratic opponent, Sherrod Brown, was ahead in recent surveys, undercutting Trump’s claim that Husted’s numbers had improved.