Trump says if Ivanka was harassed at work she should 'find another career'

If Donald Trump’s daughter was sexually harassed at work, “I would like to think she would find another career or find another company if that was the case,” the Republican candidate told an interviewer on Monday.

The question, specifically framed around the allegations against former Fox News chief Roger Ailes, came in an interview with USA Today. Ailes has been accused of sexual harassment by over 20 women since former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a lawsuit against him on 6 July. Most recently, Laurie Luhn, a former Fox News booker, has accused Ailes of maintaining a sexually coercive relationship with her. Ailes has denied all the allegations.

Trump defended Ailes, a longtime friend, in an interview with Chuck Todd on the Meet the Press on 24 July. The Republican nominee said of the allegations: “All of a sudden they’re saying these horrible things about him. It’s very sad. Because he’s a very good person. I’ve always found him to be just a very, very good person. And by the way, a very, very talented person. Look what he’s done. So I feel very badly.”

The Republican nominee has made controversial comments about women in the past. Last August, Trump said about Fox News’ Megyn Kelly that the news anchor “had blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever”, while questioning him during the first presidential debate in what was widely considered a reference to menstruation. Trump denied this.

The Republican nominee also made fun of the appearance of former rival Carly Fiorina, rated the physical attractiveness of model Heidi Klum in an interview with the New York Times and said that women who have abortions should receive “some sort of punishment”. He quickly reversed himself on latter statement.

A CNN/ORC poll released Monday showed Trump trailing Clinton by a margin of 57% to 34% among female voters.

At a town hall event in Columbus, Ohio, on Monday afternoon, Trump attempted to swerve past the controversy over his criticism of a Muslim couple whose son was killed in Iraq, claiming instead that he fears the election “is going to be rigged”.

The Republican nominee refused to answer questions from reporters at his first campaign stop since he berated Khizr and Ghazala Khan, triggering a backlash from Barack Obama, Senator John McCain and military families.

But Trump did begin his speech by contrasting his support for war veterans with that of rival Hillary Clinton, before veering off to express concern that the presidential election will not be run fairly.

He told supporters: “Hillary will be nothing more than four more years of Obama. Four more years of Isis. Four more years of a military that’s being depleted and not taking care of our vets. She said a few months ago our vets are being taken care of just fine. She said no, no, it’s over-exaggerated.

“I know the vets. I think I have tremendous support with the vets. Raised a lot of money and gave a lot of money to the vets. I will tell you something, the vets are not being taken care of well at all. The suicide rate is hard to believe even when you hear the numbers, and you know the numbers I’m talking about.”

Trump has previously cited a study that shows an average of 20 veterans commit suicide every day. “They wait in line for two, three, four, five days. Think of going to a doctor and waiting for five days, longer than that, and people are dying waiting in line. So we’re going to take care of our vets.”

He then switched topics, saying: “We’re going to secure our borders.” This prompted a cheer and chants of, “Build the wall!” Trump replied: “We’re going to build the wall and Mexico’s going to pay for the wall.”

During the Columbus event, Trump said he felt the Democrats had fixed their primary system so Clinton could defeat Bernie Sanders. “I’m afraid the election is going to be rigged, I have to be honest,” he said. He claimed that he hears “more and more” that the poll may not be free and fair.

Trump said he raised $35.8m from small donors in July. His average donation was $69, he added, with more than 500,000 contributors.

The candidate has been likening himself to Sanders, raising small amounts of money online or via cheques, in contrast to Clinton, whom he says is dependent on hedge funds. “She’s gonna have a fortune,” he said. “She’s gonna have a billion, a billion and a half, because she’s totally controlled.”

Trump, who has slipped behind in Clinton in polls following last week’s Democratic convention, also criticised the media for being biased against him. He branded CNN the “Clinton News Network” and defended his weekend comments over Russia and Ukraine.

Crimea had been annexed during Obama’s watch in 2014, he said. “Do you want to have world war three to get it back? ... Wouldn’t it be great if we actually got along with Russia? Am I wrong in saying that? Wouldn’t it be great? Russia, like us, has nuclear weapons, folks.

“It would be really nice if we got along with Russia and others that we don’t get along with right now. And wouldn’t it be nice if we teamed up with Russia and others, including surrounding states and maybe Nato, and we knocked the hell out of Isis and got rid of these people?”

Trump said Ohio had lost one in three manufacturing jobs since Bill Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement in the 1990s. “They call it the rust belt for a reason, because everything’s rusting and rotting,” he said.

The candidate complained bitterly that a fire marshal had restricted access to the event to a thousand people, describing it as a “disgrace”. He said: “They turned away thousands of people – look at the size of this place – they turned away thousands. Is the mayor a Democrat? Is he a Democrat? That’s what I heard. You oughta be ashamed of him.

“It’s very sad. You know, it shouldn’t be so much about politics ... It’s really politics at its lowest.

The mayor of Columbus is Democrat Andrew Ginther.