The Washington Post: Trump holds meandering news conference, where he agrees to debate Harris

Donald Trump defended people who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, saying they had been treated “very unfairly” and bragged about his crowd size that day.

He gave a noncommittal answer when asked if he would rule out restricting medication abortion, rekindling one of Democrats’ top political issues. He repeatedly flashed frustration with early Democratic enthusiasm for Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, complaining about coverage of her crowds. He told a reporter it was a “stupid question” to ask why he was not campaigning more.

And he agreed to debate Harris on September 10 on ABC, reversing his previous insistence on only debating at another time with a different network.

The former president made the remarks Thursday, local time, during a meandering hour-long news conference at his gilded club, with the logo affixed to a lectern inside a cavernous lobby where he bragged about its size and its worth. The combative appearance came as Trump is looking to seize the spotlight back from Harris and her new running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. Harris has enjoyed a surge in fundraising and enthusiasm within her party since President Joe Biden dropped his re-election bid last month and endorsed her to take over as the nominee.

“The honeymoon period’s going to end,” Trump said. He insisted he had not recalibrated his strategy.

The former president said Jewish people “should have their head examined” if they did not vote for him. He attacked Hillary Clinton and claimed that he told people to “relax” when they actually wanted to charge her with crimes, even as he led “lock her up” chants at his rallies. He lauded a judge who dismissed a case against him for mishandling classified documents and obstructing justice; called for more presidential authority over the Federal Reserve; said he was “not a big fan” of Biden’s brain; raised conspiracy theories about the 2020 election; and said mail-in voting should be ended. He labelled Elon Musk a “different kind of guy”; deemed his former strategist Stephen K. Bannon, currently serving prison time for contempt of Congress, a political prisoner; and bragged repeatedly about his crowd sizes, often with false numbers.

Trump’s appearance put attention back on him, where he prefers it. Some Democrats said they would welcome him doing news conferences more frequently.

“He seems kind of frantic and unsettled,” said David Axelrod, a top Democratic operative. “Look at him today, and look at how she’s performed since she took over as the nominee. Who looks like the more confident candidate?”

As Trump spoke, Harris and Walz spent a second day campaigning in Michigan as part of a tour of battleground states. Addressing autoworkers in the Detroit area, Harris promised to support organised labour and more broadly provide an alternative to Trump’s divisiveness. “Our campaign is about saying we trust the people,” Harris said. “We see the people. We know the people.”

Trump and Republicans called for Harris to hold a news conference, something she hasn’t done since replacing Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket. “You know why she’s not doing a news conference? She doesn’t know how to do a news conference. She’s not smart enough to do a news conference,” Trump said.

The former president proposed three debates, including one on September 10 that he had previously ruled out. After Trump’s comments, ABC News said on X that Trump and Harris “have both confirmed they will attend the ABC debate.” The other debates would be on NBC and Fox News, if Harris agreed. She previously had not accepted the Fox debate.

Harris wrote on the social media website X, “I hear that Donald Trump has finally committed to debating me on Sept. 10. I look forward to it.” Harris told reporters as she left Michigan that she was “happy to have” a conversation about another debate after Sept. 10.

The news conference marked an attempt by Trump to reclaim the spotlight after several rough weeks for his campaign, with advisers and allies calling for changes amid tightening polls. A national survey from Marquette Law School found Harris with a narrow lead over Trump among registered voters. In Georgia - a state where Trump had a polling advantage against Biden - a new poll found Trump and Harris tied in a head-to-head match-up among likely voters.

Trump himself has grown frustrated, people close to him said, with the media attention on Harris, along with her rising poll numbers. When he heard his team had summoned reporters to Florida for a briefing without him, he asked them to arrange for buses to take them to his club so he could hold a news conference, people familiar with his campaign said. Like others, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations.

His frustration was visible throughout. When asked about January 6 and the violent rioters who stormed the Capitol to stop the certification of his 2020 reelection loss, he repeatedly bragged about the large crowd he drew to the National Mall.

Trump falsely claimed there was a peaceful transition “last time” and that “nobody was killed,” despite the fact the violent attack left five people dead, including a police officer and a woman shot by police. Two other officers on duty that day later died by suicide, and more than 100 officers were injured. Trump also fixated on the size of the crowd that saw him speak near the Capitol before the attack, claiming without evidence that it was bigger than when Martin Luther King Jr. spoke from the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington.

“Same real estate, same everything,” he said. “We actually had more people.” He suggested without evidence that pictures of his crowd that day were suppressed.

He expressed repeated frustration about Harris becoming the Democratic nominee, grumbling extensively about Biden leaving the race even as he claimed he was not complaining. At one point, he even falsely said it was unconstitutional for Harris to become the nominee.

At times, he did not hide his visible frustration. “What a stupid question,” he said, when asked why Harris was campaigning more frequently than he was.

“I am doing tremendous amounts of taping here. We have commercials at a level I don’t think anybody has ever done before,” he said.

Trump commented on abortion medication after a reporter asked him about the possibility that he would direct his Food and Drug Administration to “revoke access” to mifepristone, a key abortion drug. Trump did not rule out doing so in his response, despite previously praising a Supreme Court ruling that maintained access to the drug.

Trump said he was less concerned now about Democrats using the reversal of Roe v. Wade, made possible by his appointments to the Supreme Court, to win the election in 2024. Democrats have said they plan to make abortion a focal point of their campaign and have had success in recent elections by elevating the topic.

“That issue … is very much subdued,” Trump said.

He declined to say how he would vote on a Florida abortion referendum that he predicted liberals would win.

Trump attacked Harris in personal terms, mispronouncing her name, as he has done before, and hinted again at criticism of her multiracial identity. Trump last week falsely accused Harris, who was born to a Jamaican father and Indian mother, of once hiding her Black heritage.

“I’ve known her a long time,” Trump said, noting he donated to Harris earlier in her political career. “To me, it doesn’t matter. But to her, from her standpoint, I think it’s very disrespectful to both really, whether it’s Indian or Black.”

The former president again attacked the popular Republican governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, though he suggested the two might eventually have a détente of sorts. “I’ve never understood it. When you get somebody elected, they’re supposed to like you,” Trump said of Kemp. The relationship failed after Kemp wouldn’t help him overturn the 2020 election results.

Trump also criticised the Federal Reserve for being too slow to lower interest rates and said he believed the president should have more power - and he would be better equipped to make decisions.

He briefly talked about the topics his campaign wants to make the core issues of his campaign - immigration and inflation - but seemed more animated when discussing other topics.

He bragged about his warm friendship with Kim Jong Un, the brutal dictator of North Korea.

“Kim Jong Un, he liked me a lot. He doesn’t like this group,” he said.

The morning began where Trump’s top advisers sought to convince reporters they remained the front-runners. A campaign official said the last two weeks had been “a kind of out-of-body experience where we have suspended reality for a couple of weeks.”

In an extensive presentation, Trump’s team said they continued to believe he would win a race if it was focused on the economy.

“What President Trump offers is a value proposition,” another official said. “Americans were better off with Trump and he can improve their lives immediately.”

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