Mark Cuban says Trump won presidential election ‘fair and square’ — and also congratulates Elon Musk
Kamala Harris campaign surrogate Mark Cuban said Donald Trump won the election, offering his congratulations to the former president in an early morning post to X.
“Congrats @realDonaldTrump. You won fair and square. Congrats to @elonmusk as well. #Godspeed,” the “Shark Tank” judge wrote Wednesday.
Cuban had been out stumping for Harris on the campaign trail, but got backlash after claiming Trump does not surround himself with “strong, intelligent women” while appearing on ABC’s “The View” on Thursday.
“Donald Trump, you never see him around strong, intelligent women. Ever,” Cuban told the talk show. “It’s just that simple. They’re intimidating to him. He doesn’t like to be challenged by them, and, you know, Nikki Haley will call him on his nonsense with reproductive rights and how he sees and treats and talks about women. I mean, he just can’t have her around. It wouldn’t work.”
Cuban immediately regretted his careless remarks and tried to clear them up.
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“It’s part of politics, it was my mistake, and I apologized for it. I certainly wasn’t saying anything negative about anyone supporting Trump,” Cuban said.
The billionaire invoked his wife, Tiffany Stewart, saying she had already commented on the remarks and didn’t have a problem with them.
“Tiffany watched the entire interview and had no issue with it. She knew what I was trying to say,” he said. “She also knows that when I do hundreds of interviews, there will be some I mess up on. I flubbed many more Mavs interviews that got me fined by the NBA. So she is kind of used to it.”
Cuban later claimed he was attempting to point out why Haley wasn’t very active on the campaign trail for Trump.
“This is what I said during a conversation about why Nikki Haley was not active in his campaign,” Cuban wrote on X Thursday. “I know many strong, intelligent women voting for Trump, including in my extended family. I’m certainly not saying female voters are not smart, strong and intelligent.”
“I know he has worked with strong, intelligent women, like Elaine Chao, Kelly Anne, Ivanka and many others,” Cuban added. “I stand by my opinion that he does not like being challenged publicly.”
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Trump praised several of the women he says helped him return to the White House including his “beautiful wife Melania” during his election victory speech Wednesday morning in West Palm Beach, Florida.
“(She) has the number one best-selling book in the nation, can you believe it?” Trump said of his wife’s “Melania: A Memoir.”
“She’s done a great job, works very hard to help people, so I just want to thank her,” he added.
Forty-four percent of females voted for Republican candidates, according to NBC News exit polls from the 10 key states.
It is a slight increase from four years ago when 42 percent of females voted for Republicans.
