He was “very angry” with Harris and therefore felt “justified in making personal attacks,” Trump said at a press conference on Thursday evening (local time).
The former president also said of Harris that he “doesn’t have much respect for her intelligence” and that she would be a “terrible president.” Haley had called on Trump on Tuesday to stop the personal attacks on Harris and instead focus on the substantive debate with the Democratic presidential candidate.
The election cannot be won by talking about what “race” Harris belongs to or that she is “stupid,” Haley said on the right-wing television channel Fox News. The former ambassador and ex-governor was referring to the fact that Trump has repeatedly denigrated his rival as unintelligent and has questioned her identity as an African American. Harris is the daughter of a black Jamaican father, her mother is from India.
‘,’pinpoll-278494’, null, null, ‘C0004’);
});
Haley lost to Trump in the Republican presidential primaries, but she now supports his candidacy. At the press conference at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump said in response to his party colleague’s demands that while he appreciated Haley’s advice, he had to run the campaign “my way.”
The former president also said that he was running a “very quiet campaign”: “There is no shouting. (…) I am a very quiet person, believe it or not.”
At the same time, the former president said of Harris: “I am very angry at her for what she has done to the country. I am very angry at her for using the justice system against me and other people.” Trump was referring to the criminal proceedings against him, which he repeatedly describes as the machinations of the Democrats.
The 78-year-old also said that Harris was personally attacking him, calling him and his vice presidential candidate JD Vance “weird.” The term “weird” has been used frequently by Harris and other Democrats to describe Trump and Vance in recent weeks, but it is not as derogatory as Trump’s constant comments about his rival’s lack of intelligence.
At the press conference, Trump again referred to Harris as a “radical leftist” and said she had “very strong communist leanings.” The only thing Harris could deliver was “terrible inflation, massive crime and the death of the American dream.”
It was Trump’s second press conference since last week. The right-wing populist has been on the defensive in the election campaign since President Joe Biden announced on July 21 that he would not run in the November election after weeks of debate about his mental state and the Democratic Party quickly united behind Vice President Harris as the new candidate.
Trump has now been slightly overtaken by Harris in several of the latest polls. Nevertheless, he claimed at the press conference that he was ahead in the polls.
