Former US President Donald Trump, who is also the Republican presidential candidate, has dubbed his likely Democratic rival and Vice President Kamala Harris a “worse candidate” than President Joe Biden who dropped out from the race a week ago and endorsed her going forward. He termed her “far more radical left” in his first interview after she became the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party.
What did Trump say on Harris?
“I think she (Harris) is the worst candidate than him (Biden). She is far more radical left,” Trump told Fox News host Laura Ingraham in an interview on Monday.
Harris officially declared her candidacy after President Biden pulled out of the race for the White House, opposite Donald Trump, who he beat as an opponent in 2020. She is expected to be officially declared as the presidential candidate by the Democrats next month.
“I thought she was a little younger. I mean, she's 60 years old. I didn't realise she was 60. She's talking a big game. But her game is pretty bad. She was the border czar. She's trying to pretend that she wasn't,” Trump said.
“She was for defunding the police. She was for open borders. She was for having anybody come in. Now I notice that they're actually saying they want to have immunity for everybody that came into the country, and they want to have citizenship,” Trump alleged, stressing that giving citizenship to everybody would destroy the country.
“It's in such bad shape. Our country has never been in a position like this. In addition to which we could end up in a third world war. We have 20 million people that have come into the country. I would say by now 20 (million) is probably going over that number,” he added.
Trump reiterated his allegations that the Democratic leaders staged a coup against Biden who did not want to step aside and make way for anybody else for the November 5 presidential polls.
“They staged a coup against the president of the United States. They went to him and told him 'You are leaving. You are way down in the poll'. Seventeen points, I think," he said.
"It's like you're in a fight with somebody, and you're really winning, and they take him out and they put somebody else in. Nobody ever heard of this before,” he added.
“This is a coup. They took him. They said even though you got 14 million votes, you're out. And he said 'I am not going out'…They took him out. He was losing badly, so they took him out. He wants something to say. He's sitting there with nothing to do, nobody to talk to. They threw him out. This was a coup, the first one of the president of the United States,” Trump said.
Trump also said that while he “probably” will debate Harris, he “could also make a case” to avoid a face-to-face confrontation with her, CNBC News reported.
Harris’ campaign responds
After the broadcast of the interview, the Harris for President campaign said Ingraham practically begged Trump on Fox News to commit to debating Harris.
“Why won’t Donald Trump give a straight answer on debating Vice President Harris? It’s clear from tonight’s question-dodging: he’s scared he’ll have to defend his running mate’s weird attacks on women or his own calls to end elections in America in a debate against the vice president," said Harris for President spokesperson Ammar Moussa.
"Vice President Harris will be on the debate stage (on) September 10th. Donald Trump can show up, or not,” Moussa said.
(With PTI inputs)
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