- Wednesday, March 12, 2025
The former president said he is “angry” over the Biden administration’s handling of issues ranging from inflation to immigration
By: Shajil Kumar
REPUBLICAN presidential candidate Donald Trump has said he is “entitled” to personally attack his Democratic rival Kamala Harris and dismissed calls from allies to refocus his campaign on policy issues.
Trump, 78, said he is “angry” at vice president Harris, 59, over the Biden administration’s handling of issues ranging from inflation to immigration.
“I don’t have a lot of respect for her. I don’t have a lot of respect for her intelligence. I think she’ll be a terrible president. I think it’s very important that we win. And whether the personal attacks are good or bad … she certainly attacks me personally,” the former president told reporters at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey on Thursday.
Trump was responding to questions from his party members urging him not to make personal attacks on Harris, who is the first woman of colour running for the presidency.
“As far as the personal attacks (against Harris), I’m very angry at her because of what she’s done to the country. I’m very angry at her that she weaponised the justice system against me and other people. (I am) very angry at her. I think I’m entitled to personal attacks,” he said.
Asked specifically about comments from former rival Nikki Haley that Trump’s campaign needs to shift its strategy, Trump said he appreciates her advice but that he would run his campaign “my way.”
Early this week, several of his party colleagues and aides, including former Trump White House aide Peter Navarro and former Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, also urged him to focus on policy instead of attacking Harris ahead of the November 5 presidential polls.
While people “tell me I should be nice,” Trump said Harris, Biden and other Democrats “want to put me in prison.”
The real estate billionaire is scheduled to face sentencing in his hush-money case next month. The former president also faces criminal cases in Washington, DC, and Atlanta over alleged efforts to steal the 2020 election from Biden.
Trump has struggled to deliver a consistent message targeting Harris, even as Republicans argue they have a strong case against her on the economy and immigration.
The former president has at times focused on the issues, has mocked Harris’ laugh and her intelligence. Trump also faced sweeping backlash after questioning her racial identity during an appearance last month.
He said Harris is “weird in her policy”, adding that “people don’t know who she is yet”.
Harris has a “very strong communist lean” and will mean the “death of the American dream,” he said.
This was Trump’s second press conference in as many weeks as he seeks to stop Harris’s momentum since she replaced president Biden as the Democratic nominee in late July.
Regarding the Israeli war against Hamas in Gaza, Trump said he’d told Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in a July meeting to “get your victory and get it over with… The killing has to stop.”
Then at a later event with Jewish supporters, Trump turned his fire on Harris, claiming she is trying to gain support from “venomous anti-Semites in her party.”
Harris is married to a Jew who, if she wins election, would make history as the first Jewish spouse of a US president — as well as the first man in the role.
Harris-Biden event
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris made an upbeat show of unity Thursday as they held their first joint public event since Harris replaced the president as the Democratic Party’s candidate in November’s election.
Chants of “Thank you Joe!” rang out from the audience at a community college in the Maryland suburbs outside Washington.
Biden announced a major deal to reduce medication prices for retirees on social welfare programs.
But the biggest star was Biden’s vice president who has surprised many by uniting the Democratic Party and surging in the polls against Republican Donald Trump since her abrupt entry into the White House race.
“She can make one hell of a president,” Biden said of Harris.
For Biden, Thursday’s event was half victory lap, half acknowledgment that he is entering his presidency’s lame duck period.
Harris is set to be crowned as Democratic nominee at the party convention in Chicago next week.
But she made a display of vice presidential deference, delivering only short remarks to introduce Biden and stressing that it has been her honor to serve under the “most extraordinary human being.”
“There’s a lot of love in this room for our president,” she said to cheers.
Biden appeared energized, drawing cheers when he said the Democrats’ plan was to “beat the hell out of” Republican opponents and he prompted laughter on pretending not to know Trump’s name – “Donald Dump or Donald whatever.” (Agencies)
