Trump Insults Harris’s Mental Fitness, Adding to Questions About His Own

More from our inbox:

• Jimmy Carter at 100
• Christian Women: Exhausted and Feeling Homeless
• Farewell, Oakland A’s

Former President Donald J. Trump spoke at a rally in Prairie du Chien, Wis., on Saturday.Credit…Tim Gruber for The New York Times

To the Editor:

Re “Republicans Fault Trump Over Insults to His Rival” (news article, Sept. 30):

You report that Donald Trump referred to Kamala Harris, a woman of color, as being born “mentally disabled” while he maintains that Joe Biden, a white man, became mentally disabled. That’s nothing new. It’s Mr. Trump’s old playbook.

He has referred to Representative Maxine Waters of California, a Black woman, as “low I.Q. Maxine Waters.” I have seen nothing to indicate that Kamala Harris is mentally disabled or that Maxine Waters has a “low I.Q.”

By questioning the mental capacity of women of color Mr. Trump is trying to send a not-so-subtle subliminal message about people of color being “less than,” and, therefore “less deserving,” than whites.

This is a continuation of Mr. Trump’s long history of racism. From housing discrimination in the 1970s, to his ads calling for the execution of the Central Park Five in the 1980s, to birtherism during Barack Obama’s presidency, to the remark about “very fine people on both sides” in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, Mr. Trump has demonstrated time and again that he is unfit to serve as president.

Dave Schraeger
Hamilton, N.J.

To the Editor:

Regarding Donald Trump calling Kamala Harris “mentally disabled” and “mentally impaired”: By most measures Vice President Harris won the presidential debate against Mr. Trump. What does that say about Mr. Trump’s mental acuity?

John G. Williams
Wayne, Pa.

Advertisement

To the Editor:

On Friday, the National Press Club hosted a conference focused on Donald Trump’s dangerousness and lack of fitness to serve as commander in chief. Policymakers, lawyers and mental health experts argued incontrovertibly that Mr. Trump is unfit. He displays poor judgment, impulsivity, extreme self-centeredness, a vulnerability to being manipulated and an attraction to autocrats. He also blatantly shows waning cognitive capacities. In a sane world, all of this would be disqualifying.