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Trump, who has been accused of misconduct by 19 women, jokes about #MeToo in attack on female senator

That Trump would invoke the #metoo movement in his attack on a female legislator is curious: At least 19 women have publicly accused the president of improper conduct or sexual assault.

President Donald Trump, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by at least 19 women and is currently embroiled in litigation with at least two, took the opportunity Thursday to joke about the #metoo movement.

Trump was in Great Falls, Montana, ostensibly hosting a rally in support of Republican Matt Rosendale and against Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, who are facing off in the deeply red state, where Trump won by 20 points in 2016.

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But Trump's most notable comments came during an attack on a female senator that included a joke about the #metoo movement. While speaking about how the media is doing better than ever thanks to his presidency, he listed a number of Democratic candidates he felt were inadequate to replace him in news coverage. The list included former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, whom he referred to derisively as “Pocahontas.”

Trump went on to claim that Warren, who says she thinks she's somewhere around 1/32 Native American, has “based her life on being a minority,” and told the crowd he would pay Warren $1 million to take a DNA test to prove her Native American ancestry.

(This isn't the first time Trump — who spent years questioning President Obama's birthplace and reportedly continues to today despite apologizing — has made an offer to a government official to check their ancestry.

The president also described a hypothetical situation where he would toss Warren a DNA kit during a debate. “But we have to do it gently because we’re in the #MeToo generation, so we have to be very gentle,” Trump said, imitating how he would slowly toss the DNA kit, “hoping it doesn’t hit her and injure her arm, even though it weighs probably two ounces.”

The MAGA crowd behind him applauded.

“While you obsess over my genes, your Admin is conducting DNA tests on little kids because you ripped them from their mamas & you are too incompetent to reunite them in time to meet a court order.” Warren tweeted in response. “Maybe you should focus on fixing the lives you're destroying.”

That he would invoke the #metoo movement in his attack on a female legislator is curious: At least 19 women have publicly accused the president of improper conduct or sexual assault. He has denied every allegation, and personally and through his White House press office, he's called several of them liars. That, too, was a curious tactic, prompting former "The Apprentice" contestant Summer Zervos to file a defamation suit that is winding its way through the courts. It's looking increasingly likely the sitting president will have to sit for depositions in that litigation, after a judge ruled in her favor last month.

Cover image: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Four Seasons Arena on July 5, 2018 in Great Falls, Montana. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.