Arnold Palmer’s daughter reacts to Donald Trump’s references to her father

One of the daughters of late golf legend Arnold Palmer calls Donald Trump’s references to her father’s genitals “a poor choice of approaches” to honor his memory, adding that she was not upset by the comments.

“There’s not much to say. I’m not really upset,” Peg Palmer Wears, 68, told The Associated Press in an interview Sunday. “I think it was a bad choice of approach to remember my father, but what are you going to do?”

On Saturday in Latrobe, Pennsylvania — the town where Palmer was born in 1929 and learned to play golf from his father — Trump kicked off his campaign rally in the final weeks of the campaign with an in-depth 12-minute story about Palmer that included an anecdote about what Palmer looked like in the showers.

“When he took a shower with other professionals, they left there. They said, ‘Oh my God. This is unbelievable,’” Trump said with a laugh. “I had to say. We have women here who are highly sophisticated, but they used to see Arnold as a man.”

Wears said she only had passing encounters with Trump at events decades ago, but that her father and the GOP presidential candidate, an avid golfer who owns courses around the world, primarily shared a kinship over “an interest in golf.” and a love of golf.” .”

Sometimes emotional as she recalled conversations with her father, who died in 2016 at age 87, Wears said her father “believed in the Republican Party.”

“Not a day goes by that I don’t think about what my dad would say about something or what’s going on,” Wears said. “We didn’t always agree on things, but he was a quintessential American who believed passionately in this country, even when he questioned its direction.”

Asked three times Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” what he thought of Trump’s comments, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., refused to answer.

“I’ll address it, let me answer,” Johnson said, without ever answering the question. “Don’t say that again. We don’t need to say that. I understand.”

Gov. Chris Sununu, R-N.H., told ABC’s “This Week” that he didn’t like Trump’s comments, including one in which he used profanity to refer to Vice President Kamala Harris, but that the former’s comments. president would not influence voters one way or another.

“I mean, it’s just normal. He speaks in hyperbole. He riles up the crowd,” Sununu said.

But Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who supports Harris, argued that the comments show how little Trump is focusing on important issues, which will turn off voters.

“I think there are a lot of Americans, whether conservative, progressive or moderate, who say, ‘Really?’” Sanders told CNN. “We have big problems facing this country. Is this the kind of human being we want as president of the United States?

Wears, who declined to say who she would vote for in the Nov. 5 election, said she would vote in North Carolina, a crucial state, and described herself as an “unaffiliated” voter.

“The people of Western Pennsylvania are a very smart people, they work hard, and they will make their own decisions, just as I will make my own decision, using all the history and awareness I have,” Wears said of the upcoming election. “And that’s what I hope people vote with.”

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Kinnard reported from Chapin, South Carolina, and can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP. Associated Press writer Amanda Seitz in Washington contributed to this report.