Secretary of State John Kerry said that the Republican presidential candidates' rhetoric on Muslims is an "embarrassment" to the US.
In an interview with CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday, Kerry said that world leaders are "shocked" by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's proposal to bar Muslims from entering the US and bring back waterboarding, as well as Sen. Ted Cruz's proposal to ramp up surveillance of "Muslim neighborhoods."
"Everywhere I go, every leader I meet, they ask about what is happening in America. They cannot believe it. I think it is fair to say that they're shocked," Kerry said. "They don't know where it's taking the United States of America. It upsets people's sense of equilibrium about our steadiness, about our reliability."
"To some degree, I must say to you, some of the questions, the way they're posed to me, it's clear that what's happening is an embarrassment to our country."
Trump repeatedly made derogatory comments about women during interviews with shock jock Howard Stern. Among other things, Trump rated women on a 10-point scale, ranked women he'd like to sleep with, and said his former wife had "nice tits, no brains."
While Democrats are quick to publicly condemn Trump's rhetoric, some party operatives see Trump's likely nomination as an opportunity to draw stark contrasts between Democratic rising stars with the GOP frontrunner.
Groups like Emily's List, which backs pro-choice, female Democratic candidates, contend that many of this year's Senate candidates are well positioned to use Trump as a foil for their own experiences and campaign platforms.
"Trump's offensive, out of touch comments towards women stand in stark contrast with our candidates' personal life stories," Emily's List Press Secretary Rachel Thomas told Business Insider in an email. "No one understands the challenges women and families face than women leaders themselves."
Thomas added: "Republicans won't be able to avoid the shadow of Donald Trump come November."
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