Trump holds press conference seeking to retake upper hand against Harris – Technologist

While Kamala Harris wanted to embody the future in Philadelphia on Tuesday, August 6, by introducing her running mate Tim Walz, the Democratic governor of Minnesota, in an atmosphere of joy and energy, Donald Trump painted darker pictures two days later, in front of a row of American flags in his Neo-Moorish palace at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. The Republican populist predicted the worst depression since 1929 and the Second World War. “We are in great danger of being in World War III,” he asserted during a press conference lasting just over an hour on Thursday, August 8.

Instead of looking past Joe Biden’s term and toward the future, as Harris has sought to do, Trump rehashed it, to discredit the vice president. He paid particular attention to the humiliating evacuation from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, which reminded Americans of the fall of Saigon in 1975. “Russia doesn’t respect us anymore. China doesn’t respect us anymore. North Korea, Kim Jong-un, liked me a lot. He does not like this group. We are in great danger,” Trump asserted, arguing that people want “security” and “respect.”

The main purpose of this press conference was to resume the offensive against Harris, who in less than three weeks, has managed to catch up with Trump in many polls. The angle of attack was to accuse Harris of defying the press. “She doesn’t know how to do a news conference. She’s not smart enough to do a news conference,” he slammed, while answering numerous questions himself and promising journalists that, if he were reelected to the White House, they would have “total access”: “You’ll have a lot of press briefings (…) more than you want.”

Accused of incompetence

With 90 days to go before the election, Harris has effectively given no interviews or held any press conferences. Trump, for his part, was quick to propose three debates with his opponent – September 4 on Fox, September 10 on ABC and September 25 on NBC – with only the one on ABC confirmed by the network and the Democratic Party so far.

The Republican candidate disparaged his opponent, accusing her of incompetence and criticizing the progressive state of California, where Harris is from: “I think she’s incompetent. Because I’ve watched her, she destroyed San Francisco, she destroyed California, everything she’s touched has turned to bad things.”

Trump questioned the constitutionality of her status as a candidate, without a single legal argument. “She had no votes. (…) They said (…) they were going to go through a quick primary system (…) and then it all disappeared,” Trump charged. These attacks against a rival’s legitimacy are a classic move for Trump, who previously questioned Barack Obama’s citizenship at birth and therefore his legitimacy as president, as well as the outcome of the 2020 elections.

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