Republican presidential contender Donald Trump said that he is justified is insulting Democratic rival Kamala Harris on a personal level because he doesn't like her. Eighty-year-old Trump said he was fed up with 59-year-old Vice President Harris on how the administration of President Biden had addressed issues including inflation and immigration.
"Personally, I don't respect her very much. I don't respect her very much. I think she's going to be awful. I really think it's important that we win. And whatever it is - if the personal attacks are good or bad…it's all fair, she attacks me very personally," Trump said to reporters at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club Thursday.
Trump's comments came in response to advice from within his party to avoid personal attacks on Harris, the first woman of color to run for the White House. "As far as the personal attacks, I'm very angry at her because of what she's done to the country. I'm very angry at her that she weaponized the justice system against me and other people. [I am] very angry at her. I think I'm entitled to personal attacks," Trump said.
He also reacted to Harris' remarks, among which was her calling him "weird." "She actually called me weird. He's weird, it was just a sound bite, and she called J D and I weird. He's not weird. He was a great student at Yale, he went to Ohio State, graduated in two years at the top of his class and all of these different things. We have this guy that's running failed, really a very failed state who had a terrible career. I mean, you have him saying they're weird. No, he's a weird guy," Trump added.
Asked to respond to former competitor Nikki Haley's recommendation that he recalibrate his campaign message, Trump acknowledged the recommendation but said he's sticking to his plan to run the campaign "my way." Even as Trump sometimes lands on policy, he has come under criticism for mocking Harris' laugh and intelligence and making controversial comments questioning her racial identity.
Trump called Harris "weird in her policy," asking who would stand behind policies that look to raise taxes. "Who doesn't want to have strongholds, who doesn't want to have lower taxes? You know, all my life I've watched as politicians campaigned and I've always been on for the most part, on the other side. This is the only campaign I've ever heard of. When they're saying we're going to increase your taxes and then people say they're going to vote for," Trump said.
The news conference marked the second for Trump in two weeks. He hopes to erase his deficit at the expense of Harris. It came a day after a slate of his partisans and aides, including former Trump White House aide Peter Navarro and former Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, had urged the former president to further concentrate on policies and not personalities in anticipation of the November 5 presidential poll,.
He also reacted to criticism of his tone, saying that people "tell me I should be nice" but that he feels Harris, Biden, and other Democrats "want to put me in prison." The former president is scheduled to be sentenced in his hush-money case next month and also faces criminal cases in Washington, D.C., and Atlanta over his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
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