
In his first solo press conference in over a year, former President Donald Trump boasted about his readiness to speak with the media and pushed Vice President Kamala Harris for additional debates on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club, Trump said of Harris, “She can’t do an interview.” “She’s not very skilled.”
He went on, “She’s not smart enough to do a news conference.”
The entire presidential election has changed in pace since Joe Biden withdrew, at least for the Democratic side. Democrats now have Vice President Kamala Harris, 59, who is traveling the nation and holding rallies at a faster rate than either party had earlier in the election, in place of an 81-year-old president secluded by his staff.
But Trump hasn’t slowed down at all. Trump’s main event this week, after the press conference on Thursday, is a rally in Montana on Friday—a state that is not in contention for the November election.
Trump made a vague admission on Thursday that his standing in the polls has begun to decline, but he made no mention of his intention to alter his campaign strategy. Rather, he directed his criticism towards Harris for not accomplishing more, claiming that public perception of her will shift with further visibility. The criticism essentially acknowledges that Harris has been in charge of the campaign narrative up until this point without having to take on unscripted roles, and Trump is keen to put an end to the part of the 2024 contest where Harris has been able to garner support, fill her ticket, and raise a significant amount of money.
When asked to explain Harris’ surge in the polls, Trump responded, “She’s a woman.” “She speaks for a lot of people, but when people learn more about her, I think she’ll be much less,” the speaker said.
He turned immediately to see that she was already falling.
“I can see it now. Now that people are aware of how badly she handled San Francisco, I see her dropping significantly in the polls. He referred to Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom as “Gavin Newscum” and said, “She destroyed the state of California along with him.”
Since Biden withdrew from the race on July 21, Harris has not participated in any formal press interviews. The Trump team is beginning to stress Harris on this issue, as evidenced by his choice to host the news conference on Thursday. Outside of an event in Michigan, Harris told NBC News that she’s “looking forward” to facing Trump in a debate on September 10. She did not, however, respond to inquiries on the other two dates Trump proposed on Thursday.
Harris and her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, would like to do a joint interview, and the Harris team understands the need and pressure to do so, according to an aide to Harris who is familiar with her team’s thinking on media engagement and another Harris campaign official who spoke with NBC News. They said that because of the duo’s swing-state tour, this week presented logistical challenges.
In a “few weeks,” Harris and Walz would like to conduct a joint interview, according to the Harris staffer. Although it is “unlikely,” the insider claimed that a meaningful interview with the two would be possible prior to the Democratic National Convention.
The source went on to say that Harris and Walz intend to conduct interviews with social media influencers on sites like TikTok and Snapchat in addition to traditional legacy media outlets both locally and nationally.
The aide to Harris also mentioned that Harris defended Biden in several interviews following his lackluster performance in the June debate. She has devoted much of her time to developing her campaign, attending events, and selecting a running mate since Biden withdrew.
Given that Trump has dominated the national political conversation for the majority of the last nine years, his staff stated that, in light of their candidate’s light itinerary, they are not concerned about the perception of Harris touring swing states all week.
According to a top Trump adviser, “I get the biggest kick out of this—the tempo, blah, blah, blah” on Thursday morning. “I mean, guys, we’re going to Mar-a-Lago to have another stand-up with the boss on a whole set of topics, and Kamala Harris has been the Democratic nominee for how long? And she hasn’t been asked a single question by the press. Thus, as far as we are concerned, the tempo has been precisely where it should be.
The Trump team knows that if Harris deviates from the plan, she will inevitably stumble. During a meeting on Thursday at a West Palm Beach hotel, top advisers to the former president played back a tape reel showing Harris’s mistakes to reporters.
The vice president has spent her career “consistently” speaking with the media and doesn’t hesitate to do so, according to former Louisiana representative Cedric Richmond, a longtime adviser to Harris and co-chair of her campaign.
Richmond stated, “She’s now on a tour to talk directly to the American people.” “And I believe that the American people would prefer to speak with her directly.”
Trump has conducted over six interviews since Biden withdrew, most of them with conservative media. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, his running mate, has completed over 20 press conferences, primarily with conservative media but also with some off-camera events with mainstream media like NBC News and a few press conferences.
In a confrontational appearance, Trump questioned Harris’s Black identity during a late-last-month panel discussion at the National Association of Black Journalists. (Harris is an American Indian and Black.)
Trump’s participation at NABJ was noteworthy in part because he has generally stayed out of situations like this. Since 2020, he has given very few interviews to mainstream media, and when he pauses on his campaign, he rarely answers questions from reporters. In addition, Trump deviates from the standard for presidential contenders by not traveling with a “pool” of reporters who are assigned to cover his remarks and actions and then report back to the media.
Richmond claimed, “He talks to the media all the time, but he’s saying nothing.” He is discussing Hannibal Lecter and her ancestry—specifically, whether she is African American or Indian. He is uttering absurdities. He gets to claim that he spoke with the media, but in reality, he said nothing. He is undergoing a quite visible breakdown. The race is no longer the same. He’s not receiving what he wants.
Regarding interviews with the media, Harris has been having private conversations off-the-record with reporters while she is stationed at Air Force Two for the past three years.
In the Democratic Party, Harris has created a great deal of excitement and fervor, packing venues for his rallies and raising unprecedented sums of money. However, she and her team are still trying to establish her identity and highlight the policy differences between her and Biden.
A representative for the Harris team remarked, “If Donald Trump is so worried about VP Harris’ campaign blitz, he could, you know, get out there on the campaign trail.” “He is more than welcome to tout his election-losing platform, which calls for repealing the Affordable Care Act, destroying a bipartisan border agreement, and endorsing a nationwide abortion ban.”