By James Larino, OAN Staff
Friday, August 16, 2024 9:08 AM
President Donald Trump held a late-afternoon news conference Thursday at his Bedminster, New Jersey, home, around a table laid out with breakfast cereal, fruit, bread, milk, coffee, bacon and graphs showing how much prices have risen under the Biden administration.
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The former president slammed Vice President Kamala Harris, who was on display next to him, and spoke at length about soaring food prices, her work as a border agent, record inflation and her new policy proposals to fight price gouging. He also answered questions from reporters, something no Democratic candidate has done in nearly a month.
“You’re all going to be thrown into a communist system,” Trump said. “We’re calling it the Maduro Plan, and it’s straight out of Venezuela or the Soviet Union.” He also criticized Harris’ health care priorities, claiming, “There will be no more private health care.”
Despite criticism from even his supporters, Trump has stepped up his personal attacks on the vice president: “I don’t have much respect for her. I don’t have much respect for her intelligence. I think she’d be a terrible president,” he said.
“Whether personal attacks are good or bad, she certainly attacked me personally. She actually called me a ‘freak,'” Trump said, before defending his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, and dismissing his “freak” accusations by pointing to his educational accomplishments.
The press conference came after news of new campaign hires broke earlier in the day. Joining the 2024 team are Trump’s 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, his 2020 campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh, and MAGA Inc. super PAC’s Taylor Budowicz, Alex Pfeiffer and Alex Brusewitz. “We continue to add to our incredible campaign team as the race draws to a close,” Trump’s 2024 campaign co-managers Chris LaCivita and Suzie Wiles said in a joint statement.
When asked about the new hires, Trump said, “We have great people. Suzie. [Wiles] You know, it’s great, and Chris. [LaCivita] “We have a great team. They’re the driving force behind the team. We’re also adding Corey Lewandowski.”
Looking back on last month’s assassination attempt, Trump offered a positive spin on what is widely believed to have been a flawed Secret Service operation: “There’s no question that mistakes were made, but there was also a lot of bravery and we should never forget that.”
The former president’s campaign schedule has been unusually slow for him, with Vance campaigning heavily and hosting a Sunday show in recent days, which some supporters see as a tactic to conserve energy until the media’s sugar high on Harris wears off.
It will be the second week in a row that Trump has held a press conference at his property, though it is unclear if it will become a weekly event.
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