Trump Deflects ‘Weird’ Insult, Seeking to Regain 2024 Narrative
(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump hit back at Democratic attacks that have mocked him and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, as “weird” and called his opponents “freakish” in a bid to reset a presidential race that has seen his campaign lose ground.
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“We’re very solid people,” Trump said rejecting the “weird” moniker first deployed by Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, to describe the GOP ticket and its policies — a jab that was embraced by Democrats. “It’s not a word that’s really used too much in politics, but it’s a terrible thing that they could do this. It’s just a sound bite.”
Trump defended Vance, who has faced criticism since his selection for the GOP ticket and spurred concerns among Republicans about his candidacy.
“He’s really stepped up. I said, you got your sea legs, you know, because the first day they were hitting him with a lot of nonsense,” Trump said.
The former president also issued a barb of his own, calling Walz a “man who’s very freakish.”
Trump, at a rally in Bozeman, Montana on Friday — his first in nearly a week and the first since Harris clinched the Democratic nomination — tested out new insults for his opponents, calling Harris “dumb” and a “bumbling, communist lunatic.”
The rally in Big Sky country came just hours after Harris and Walz held a campaign event in Arizona — their latest stop on a multi-day swing-state blitz.
Harris at the rally sought to address one of her biggest political liabilities — voter discontent with President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy — pledging to combat corporations who are increasing costs for consumers, including pharmaceutical companies, landlords and companies that engage in illegal price gouging.
“Unlike Donald Trump, I will always put the middle class and working families first,” Harris said.
Trump has been under pressure to shake up the race with national polls now showing Harris ahead and the Democratic nominee looking to gain an advantage in battleground states, including some that were a reach for her party when Biden was atop their ticket.
While Harris has been barnstorming the country this week, Trump by contrast has relied on media interviews and an hour-long press conference Thursday from his Mar-a-Lago resort to steal back the spotlight. At the press event, he proposed three debates with Harris — one of which, a Sept. 10 forum hosted by ABC News – she accepted.
Senior campaign advisers also briefed reporters on strategy and the state of the race Thursday, seeking to undercut the perception that Trump is on the backfoot and insisting Harris’ rise in polling will be short-lived.
Still, the Republican nominee has shown signs of frustration that a campaign geared toward removing Biden from office now has a new opponent with just three months until Election Day, even as he has said during his press conference that he was “not complaining.”
Trump initially struggled to settle on a line of attack, taking on Harris with language laden with racist and sexist overtones, and questioning the racial identity of a candidate seeking to become the first Black woman and first Asian-American president in US history. That approach threatened to undercut a months-long effort to reach out to Black voters and appeal to suburban women.
The former president has kept up the torrent of criticism, focusing now on casting Harris and Walz as too far to the left for American voters – an approach echoed by other Republicans.
Trump and Vance have also assailed Harris for not sitting for an interview with media since accepting her party’s nomination. On Wednesday, Vance shadowed Harris during visits to Michigan and Wisconsin, two battleground states — including an awkward exchange where he approached reporters near her plane.
Trump’s return to the trail on Friday comes in a state that is solidly in the GOP presidential column. Montana, however, boasts a critical-down ballot Senate race that is one of the most competitive – and expensive – of the cycle. Republicans are seeking to unseat incumbent Democrat Jon Tester, who faces a tough challenge from Trump-backed former Navy SEAL and aerospace company founder Tim Sheehy.
Harris’ campaign tour will take her on Saturday to Las Vegas, where turning out Democratic voters will be critical to winning swing-state Nevada. She’ll also attend a fundraiser in San Francisco on Sunday.
--With assistance from Akayla Gardner.
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