Former President Trump has said personal attacks by former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago gave him justification to ignore advice from allies to stop the insults and continue his policy attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Did you see Barack Hussein Obama last night? He was attacking your president. And so was Michelle,” Trump told supporters at a rally in battleground state of North Carolina on Wednesday.
“Going small is petty, it’s unhealthy and, frankly, it’s unpresidential,” the former first lady said, referring to President Trump during her speech at the Democratic National Convention.
She added: “This is his usual tactic – piling up ugly, misogynistic and racist lies in place of real ideas and solutions that would actually improve people’s lives.”
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Former President Obama was joined by former first lady Michelle Obama on Tuesday during the second day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Minutes later, former President Obama called his White House successor “a 78-year-old billionaire who’s been whining about his problems ever since he stepped off that golden escalator nine years ago.”
“There’s a constant stream of grievances and complaints, made worse by the fear that Kamala will lose. There’s the childish nicknames, the crazy conspiracy theories, the bizarre obsession with crowd size,” Trump said, making a hand gesture as if mocking his masculinity.
Trump emphasized the verbal attacks against him from the previous night and appeared to mock the advice from his Republican allies.
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“They keep saying, ‘Mr. President, please stick to the policy, no personal attacks,'” Trump said. “And yet they continue to make personal attacks all night long.”
“Do we still have to stick to the policy?” Trump asked his supporters in the crowd.
Trump has continued to blast and insult Harris in speeches, press conferences and social media posts over the past four weeks, while criticizing her on key issues like border security, crime and inflation.
Former President Trump spoke at a campaign rally at the North Carolina Aviation Museum in Asheboro, North Carolina on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Julia Nickinson)
A Trump political source told Fox News that the former president’s top advisers are privately trying to persuade Trump to refrain from insulting Harris or questioning the vice president’s racial identity, and instead focus on positioning her as an ultra-liberal candidate.
Trump’s allies have publicly lobbied to bring renewed attention to the former president.
“This race shouldn’t be decided by character,” former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said in an interview last week on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.” “Stop questioning the size of her support and start questioning her positions.”
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McCarthy stressed that Trump has a “short time to act, so don’t just sit back. Get out there and start making your case.”
In an interview with Bret Baier on Fox News’ “Special Report” last week, Nikki Haley, the former United Nations ambassador and former governor of South Carolina who was Trump’s main rival in the Republican presidential primary earlier this year, also offered some unsolicited advice to her former boss.
Haley reiterated her hope for Trump to win the presidential election, saying, “You don’t win a campaign by talking about the size of the crowd. You don’t win a campaign by talking about what race Kamala Harris is. You don’t win a campaign by talking about whether she’s stupid. That’s not true. You can’t win by talking about that. The American people are smart. Treat them like smart people.”
At a rally on Wednesday, Trump echoed the approach of allies who have urged him to avoid personal insults.
“Mr. President, you’ve got to stick to your guns. You’re going to win on the border. You’re going to win on inflation. You’re going to win with the great military that you’ve built,” Trump said.
A few minutes later, he polled his supporters in the crowd, asking them if they thought he should “attack them personally or not.”
In my personal opinion, I won by a very clear margin.
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