Former President Trump sounded exasperated when asked at a press conference on Thursday if he was afraid of the size of Vice President Harris’ audience.
“Come on, come on,” Trump said. “Look, there were 107,000 in New Jersey and you didn’t report it. I’m so glad you asked. Were there 2,000 yesterday?”
The Harris campaign said 14,000 people attended a rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday and 15,000 attended one in Detroit on Wednesday night.
“If I get 2,000 people, I’ll say my campaign is over,” Trump said.
Harris has been garnering huge enthusiasm and fundraising as the leading Democratic candidate since President Biden dropped out of the presidential race late last month. She announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) as her running mate on Tuesday, receiving congratulations from Democrats across the party.
“Let me tell you, we have a passion,” Trump said. “The Republican Party, and I as the candidate, have a passion for the Republican Party, because people want to see an end to crime, people want to see us become a respected country.”
Later in the press conference, President Trump said the audience that drew to his speech on January 6, 2021, was the largest he had ever spoken to, and compared it to the audience that attended Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
“And frankly, it’s very hard to find pictures of that crowd…. Look at Martin Luther King’s speech, his great speech and our speech. Same real estate, same everything. Same numbers, otherwise we would have more people,” he said.
According to The Hill/Decision Desk average of national polls, Trump is leading Harris by 0.2 percentage points.
A new Ipsos poll found that Harris and Trump are in a “statistically close presidential race” among voters in key battleground states including Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada.
Trump acknowledged that Harris was doing well in the polls after her endorsement was announced, but said some polls still showed she would win by a landslide.
The Hill has reached out to Harris’ campaign for comment.
