November 4, 2016

This Is the Bleakest Poll of the 2016 Election

Hillary’s right—our kids are watching.

Loren Elliott/ZUMA

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Throughout the election season, Hillary Clinton has used Donald Trump’s record of belittling and rating women based on their physical appearances as evidence that the Republican nominee is a bad role model and unfit to be president of the United States. “Our children are watching,” one Clinton ad from July suggested. Another in September featured young women looking in the mirror, while Trump’s own words disparaging women played in the background.

A new poll from the Upshot published on Friday appears to confirm Clinton’s stark warnings, with nearly half of the teenage girls polled saying that Trump’s disparaging remarks have had a negative effect on the way they view their bodies.

“That hits me hard when people like Trump say people who are skinnier than I am are too big,” 15-year-old Morgan Lesh told the Times. “It makes me feel extremely insecure about myself.” 

“Especially for girls in high school rating girls on a scale of 1 to 10 does not help because it really does get into your head that they think I’m ugly or I don’t look good,” 14-year-old Jordan Barrett said.

The survey’s results align with other anecdotes showing Trump’s inflammatory remarks resonating with children.

Trump, as he’s done with similar lines of criticism against him, has used Clinton’s negative portrayal of him to suggest that she’s the one who is a bad role model for his 10-year-old son. By next Tuesday, we’ll see who America believes.

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