Domestic violence survivors and their advocates have condemned Donald Trump’s remarks dismissing intimate partner violence as a “little fight with the wife,” warning that the president’s dismissive statements send a dangerous message that normalizes abuse.
In Monday remarks, Trump claimed that crime in Washington, D.C., was “virtually nothing” except for “lesser things” that “take place in the home they call crime.”
“They’ll do anything they can to find something,” he said. “If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say, ‘This was a crime,’ see, so now I can’t claim 100 percent.”
Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell, a survivor of childhood domestic abuse, said “this position from the president directly opposes” decades of efforts to remove stigma around domestic violence.
“Let me tell you, as someone who hid in a closet many times as a child, being tough on crime means keeping women and children safe in their own homes,” she said in a statement.
Democratic Rep. Gwen Moore, another domestic violence survivor, called Trump’s remarks “deeply offensive and disturbing.”
“Trump has a long history of violence against women that makes his dismissiveness unsurprising,” said Moore, referencing dozens of allegations of abuse against the president. Trump has denied the accusations.
The president’ statements — delivered weeks before the 25th annual Domestic Violence Awareness Month, which coincides with the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act — appear to undermine what federal government agencies have long recognized as a national public health and safety crisis.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that at least four in ten women and one in four men have experienced physical or sexual violence or stalking by an intimate partner.
Domestic violence is not limited to physical abuse and may include a pattern of abusive behaviors to gain and maintain power and control over a victim, including financial control, stalking and emotional abuse, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
The hotline fields up to 3,000 calls and messages a day from across the country.
“No matter what it looks like or where it happens, all forms of abuse are harmful whether they are considered a crime or not,” the group’s CEO Katie Ray-Jones told The Independent.
Domestic violence “is not a private matter or a misunderstanding,” said Pace Women’s Justice Center director Cindy J. Kanusher.
“It is abuse. It is a crime. And it must be treated with the seriousness it demands,” she told The Independent.
