Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump told Breitbart News during a conference call with reporters Tuesday afternoon that if Vice President Kamala Harris remains as politically weak as she has been, it “won’t be that hard” to beat her.
President Trump held a press conference on Tuesday to focus on Harris’ dismal record as outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden’s border commissioner. Biden appointed Harris to the position in March 2021 early in his administration, and she has overseen the influx of millions of migrants. President Trump’s call on Tuesday came just 48 hours after Harris had effectively clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, just 48 hours after Biden announced he was dropping out of the race on Sunday afternoon, as the Democratic Party rejected any public process and opted to select Harris as its nominee. President Trump held a press conference with Paul Perez and Brandon Judd, current and former chairs of the National Border Patrol Council, to explain Harris’ radical policies. At the end of the call, Trump took questions from several reporters, including Breitbart News, which asked Trump if he thought Democrats who rushed to throw Biden out of the race would regret it come Election Day, given Harris’ radical track record on immigration and other issues.
Trump responded by saying Harris’ loss in the 2020 presidential election proves how weak she is as a candidate.
“She ran for president and she lost badly. She didn’t even make it to Iowa,” Trump responded. “She ran in a big place, you know, California, but she had very little name recognition, very little name recognition. Her name recognition didn’t last long, because once people got to know her, she quickly became unpopular. She got beaten badly in the debates by Tulsi. Tulsi really hurt her, but other people really hurt her. She got beaten badly in the debates.”
Trump added in his response that Harris was the “meanest” of all the candidates toward Biden himself during the 2020 primary debates.
“She was overwhelmingly mean to Joe Biden, so I’m surprised he picked her. Nobody was meaner than her,” Trump said. “She abused racism on a level that you rarely see. She was really mean to him, and he picked her. So I don’t know. They’re acting like good friends now, but they’re never going to recover from that. I wouldn’t recover from that easily. I would not have picked her.”
Trump went on to point out that Harris has a reputation for failing in the spotlight, and that it would be better for America if she continued to buckle under pressure again as the Democratic presidential nominee in 2024. He also said he didn’t think it would be hard to beat her at the polls if she kept up her failed past.
“I think she’ll be good for the country, frankly. I think what happened to her before is going to happen to her,” Trump said. “She’s been on a big stage. She started off at a high level for fake reasons because nobody knew who she was. And then within four weeks, five or six weeks, she’s been defeated badly, didn’t get to Iowa, didn’t even come close to me. Her approval rating has essentially gone to zero. So if she runs like that now, it’s only going to get tougher. I’m sure she gets a lot of support from the fake news, but if she runs like she did back then, I don’t think she’ll be as tough.”
Trump began the call by saying he considered Harris to be “much more radical” than Biden.
“She’s just like Biden, but a lot more radical,” Trump told Politico’s Alex Eisenstadt during a Q&A. “This country doesn’t want to be destroyed by the radical left. She’s a lot more open borders than he is. She wants things that nobody wants. Look at the car mandate, the electric car mandate, all of that. Look at San Francisco now compared to before she was district attorney and see what she’ll do to this country. I think she has an easier time than Biden, because he’s been a little more mainstream, but not by much.”
Trump also told Fox News reporter Bill Melgin that he would debate Harris multiple times. But it’s unclear whether the debate will take place on ABC News, which was set to host the second Trump-Biden debate in September. Trump later told another reporter that while he’d agreed to an ABC debate against Biden, he hadn’t agreed to anything against Harris at this stage.
