PALM BEACH, Fla. — Former President Donald Trump held his first news conference in more than a year on Thursday, where he boasted about his willingness to speak to the press and challenged Vice President Kamala Harris to more debate.
“She can’t do an interview,” Trump said of Harris, speaking to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort. “She is not very competent.”
“She’s not smart enough to hold a press conference,” he added.
With President Joe Biden out of the race, the entire momentum of the presidential race has changed — at least on the Democratic side. Instead of an 81-year-old president cocooned by his team, Democrats now have Vice President Kamala Harris, 59, who is crisscrossing the country and holding rallies at a faster pace than either party did at the start of this election. .
Trump, however, did not change his pace. In addition to Thursday’s press conference, Trump’s big event this week is a rally on Friday in Montana, a state not up for grabs in November.
Trump tacitly acknowledged on Thursday that he has begun to slip in the polls, but has not indicated any plans to change the way he is campaigning. Instead, he focused on slamming Harris for not doing more and said that people’s opinions of her would change once she got more exposure. The criticism amounts to a recognition that Harris has been controlling the campaign narrative for now, without having to put herself in improvised positions — and Trump is eager to wrap up that part of the 2024 race, which saw Harris gain support, fill her ticket. and raise a lot of money.
“She’s a woman,” Trump said when asked to explain Harris’ rise in the polls. “She represents certain groups of people, but I will say this: When people find out about her, I think she will represent a lot less.”
He quickly spun around to portray her already falling.
“I see it now. I see her dropping in the polls now that people are finding out that she destroyed San Francisco. She destroyed the state of California along with Governor Gavin Newscum,” he said, using a derogatory nickname for Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.
Harris has yet to give any formal press conferences since Biden dropped out on July 21, and it’s a point the Trump campaign is starting to hammer home, highlighted by her decision to hold the news conference on Thursday. Harris told NBC News outside an event in Michigan that she is “looking forward” to debating Trump on Sept. 10, but did not respond to questions about the other two dates Trump floated on Thursday.
A Harris aide who is familiar with her team’s thinking on media involvement, as well as another Harris campaign official, told NBC News that Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, her new running mate, would like to do a joint interview and that the Harris team understands the need and pressure to do so. They said this week was a logistical challenge because of the duo’s tour of the swing states.
Harris’ publicist said Harris and Walz would like to do a joint interview in “a few weeks.” This person said it was “unlikely” that a substantive interview with the pair would take place before the Democratic National Convention, but that it was possible.
This person added that Harris and Walz plan to do interviews with traditional local and national media organizations, but also with social media influencers on platforms like TikTok and Snapchat.
Harris’ aide also noted that Harris gave a series of interviews following Biden’s dismal debate performance in June, defending him. Since Biden dropped out, she has spent much of her time building a campaign, traveling to events and choosing a running mate.
After Trump spent much of the last nine years at the center of national political discourse, his team said they are not concerned about Harris appearing to storm swing states all week compared to her candidate’s light schedule. .
“I like this better — the pacing, blah, blah, blah,” a senior Trump adviser said Thursday morning. “I mean, guys, Kamala Harris has been the Democratic nominee for how long, and no one from the press has asked her any questions, and we’re about to go to Mar-a-Lago to do another stand-up with the boss in a series of questions. So the tempo, I mean the tempo, as far as we’re concerned, has been exactly where it should be.”
The Trump campaign is confident that Harris will falter whenever she goes off script. The former president’s top aides showed reporters a series of missteps by Harris during a news conference Thursday at a West Palm Beach hotel.
Former Rep. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, Harris’s campaign co-chair and longtime adviser, said the vice president has spent her career “consistently” talking to the media and has no hesitation in doing so.
“She is now on tour to speak directly to the American people,” Richmond said. “And I think the American people want to hear it directly.”
Since Biden dropped out, Trump has given more than half a dozen interviews, mostly with conservative media outlets. His running mate, Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, has done more than 20, focused mostly on the conservative press but including some off-camera with traditional outlets including NBC News — as well as some press groups.
Late last month, Trump met with a panel of reporters at the National Association of Black Journalists, where he had a combative appearance in which he questioned whether Harris was actually black. (Harris is black and Indian American.)
Part of the reason Trump’s NABJ appearance was notable was that he largely avoided such situations. He has given few interviews to mainstream media since 2020 and only sporadically answers questions from reporters during campaign periods. Trump also does not travel with a “pool” – designated members of the media who observe his movements and statements and share his reports with the rest of the press – which is a departure from what is normal for presidential candidates.
“He talks to the media all the time, but he doesn’t say anything,” Richmond said. “He’s talking about Hannibal Lecter and whether she’s of Indian or African-American descent. He’s spewing nonsense. So, I mean, he can say that he talked to the press, but he didn’t say anything. … What he’s doing is having a public meltdown. The race has changed. He’s not getting what he wants.”
In terms of interactions with the press, Harris regularly speaks to reporters off the record aboard Air Force Two, a common practice of hers over the past three years.
Harris generated significant excitement and excitement in the Democratic Party, filling arenas at rallies and raising historic amounts of money. But she and her campaign are still working to define her and how she will differ from Biden when it comes to politics.
“If Donald Trump is so concerned about the success of Vice President Harris’ campaign, he could, you know, participate in the campaign,” said a Harris campaign spokesperson. “We are more than happy for him to highlight his agenda of electoral defeats: ending the [Affordable Care Act]killing a bipartisan border bill and supporting a national abortion ban.”
Jonathan Allen and Matt Dixon reported from Palm Beach; Yamiche Alcindor, Monica Alba and Amanda Terkel reported from Washington, DC; and Natasha Korecki reported from Chicago.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
