Trump says Harris has a right to personal attacks • Pennsylvania Capital-Star

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Thursday that he sees no need to change the tactics or tone of his White House bid now that Vice President Kamala Harris is the Democratic nominee instead of President Joe Biden.

Speaking during a news conference at his golf club in New Jersey, the former president began with 45 minutes of remarks on a wide range of topics before answering more than a dozen questions from reporters.

Trump argued that there was no need to limit his personal criticism of Harris since there are several ongoing criminal cases against her and because she has called him “weird” several times.

“I think I have a right to be attacked personally,” Trump said. “I don’t have a lot of respect for her. I don’t have a lot of respect for her intelligence. And I think she’ll be a terrible president.”

Numerous Republicans, including former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who challenged Trump for the nomination but now says she will vote for him, have called for Trump to focus more on the policy differences between the two political parties and less on his personal grievances with Harris.

Trump, for example, attempted to question Harris’ racial identity during her interview with the National Association of Black Journalists late last month.

Trump held Thursday’s news conference outdoors, speaking while standing between two tables of groceries and what appeared to be a large blue dollhouse.

He used these arguments to argue that prices are too high for American families, blaming the Biden-Harris administration for inflation and insisting that he is the only person capable of bringing prices down.

Trump brushed aside his poll numbers in key states, some of which put him behind or within the margin of error, in the matchup with Harris.

“I tend to get low in the polls,” Trump said. “In some cases, very low.”

He also said that if re-elected in November, he hoped to develop a “friendly” relationship with Iran and “get along well” with China. The Republican Party has repeatedly criticized Democrats for being too lenient toward both countries.

‘Another public collapse’

The Harris-Walz campaign released a mock notice for the news conference before it began Thursday, writing in an email that Trump was preparing to “stage another public meltdown in Bedminster, New Jersey.”

“Not so fresh off NABJ, Florida, and Twitter fails, Donald Trump intends to launch into another self-centered speech filled with his own personal grievances to distract from his toxic Project 2025 agenda, his unpopular running mate, and his growing detachment from the reality of the voters who will decide this election,” the campaign wrote. “These comments won’t be artificial intelligence, but they will certainly lack intelligence.”

Spokesman James Singer later released a written statement saying Trump “huffed and puffed about his opposition to lowering food costs for working- and middle-class Americans and prescription drug costs for seniors before returning to his usual lies and delusions.”

The breed is constantly changing

Despite new momentum at the top of the Democratic presidential ticket and Trump’s insistence that he is on track to win, neither candidate yet has a clear path to victory this November, experts say.

The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, a nonpartisan publication that analyzes campaigns and rates whether races lean toward one political party or the other, has placed six states in its “tie” category for the Electoral College.

Arizona’s 11 Electoral College votes, Georgia’s 16, Michigan’s 15, Nevada’s six, Pennsylvania’s 19 and Wisconsin’s 10 could go to Harris or Trump when voting is complete, the political publication reported.

Minnesota, Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District and New Hampshire are all ranked as leaning toward Harris by a combined 15 votes, while North Carolina and its 16 votes lean toward Trump.

All other states are categorized as “solid” or “likely” for Trump or Harris, underscoring the close nature of the campaign.

Walter told reporters on a call Thursday that Harris has an opportunity to sway undecided voters during her speech at the Democratic National Convention next week.

“He has an opportunity here, because people will be more interested in watching this convention, certainly, than they were a month ago when Biden was leading the ticket,” he said. “And it’s an opportunity to speak beyond the Democratic base.”

The prime-time address will give Harris a forum to address key criticisms of her presidential run, including that she is too liberal, not the best person to handle the economy and is weak on immigration policy, Walter said.

Trump and his temperament

Greg Strimple, president of GS Strategy Group, which is partnering with Cook Political Report on a project in a key state analyzing voter opinions about the candidates, said one of the biggest challenges for the Trump campaign is getting the candidate to stay on message.

“This campaign has gone from being a referendum on Biden’s age and the economy to being a referendum on Trump and his temperament,” Strimple said on the call. “And despite the fact that Donald Trump can’t get out of the way right now, his campaign is running ads that are exactly what the message says.”

If Trump and his campaign were to align themselves to push their belief that Harris is “too liberal, too inexperienced and a continuation of Biden on the economy,” that could help them regain ground in the polls and among voters before Election Day, he said.

“There’s a lot of talk right now about the race being over, and I just caution everyone that there is a path for Trump, it’s just a matter of whether he can take it,” Strimple said.

Patrick Toomey, a partner at BSG who is also part of the swing state project, said on the call that voters should not rule out ups and downs in support for candidates in the coming months, citing potential disruptions from hurricane season or ongoing wars in the Middle East.

“It’s worth considering all the dramatic twists and turns that have taken place in this race so far,” Toomey said. “And the idea that because we’ve already had this restart, things are fixed and nothing is going to change going forward, would be a mistake.”