President Donald Trump railed against Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris during a New Hampshire campaign rally on Friday night, suggesting that the California senator is “not competent” enough to make history as the first female president.
Trump: You know I want to see the first woman president also but I don’t want to see a woman president get into that position the way she’d do it and she’s not competent. pic.twitter.com/7CpFsE2wuo
— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) August 28, 2020
“I want to see the first woman president also,” Trump said, before rebuffing Harris and then boosting his own daughter for the role, claiming that Ivanka Trump who is also among his advisers, is the kind of female leader his supporters could back.
“They’re all saying, ‘We want Ivanka!’” Trump said. “I don’t blame them.”
The comments follow Trump’s ongoing attack of Harris who is the first Black woman and Asian American to be nominated to a major party’s presidential ticket.
Harris — the woman that he has said is “not competent” — is also the woman that he has repeatedly called “dangerous,” “nasty,” and even “disrespectful” in her tough questioning of his Supreme Court justice pick, Brett Kavanaugh during Senate Judiciary Committee hearings and in her criticisms of her then opponent and now running mate, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, during the party’s debates last year.
Trump has also fanned the flame surrounding a false and racist conspiracy theory about Harris’ eligibility for the vice presidency, suggesting that she may not have been born in the United States.
On Thursday, ahead of the Trump’s GOP acceptance speech, Harris had ripped the President during her first solo campaign event, saying that he had mishandled the coronavirus pandemic and failed in his duty to ensure the safety of all Americans as COVID-19 continues to ravage the nation.
The rally follows Trump’s speech on Thursday concluding the Republican National Convention on the South Lawn of the White House. Few of the spectators in New Hampshire wore masks, and they stood close together, ignoring the six feet of social distance recommended to slow the spread of the new coronavirus.
Notable is not only Trump’s effort to expand the profile of his daughter, but also a tactical move to continue to paint Harris as his true opponent for the presidency — stoking fear among conservatives about a “dangerous” and “radical” woman of color hijacking the presidency from Biden who he referred to on Friday as a “puppet” to a much more liberal agenda.
Trump’s rebuke of Harris follows efforts to shore up support from female voters during the RNC this past week where several speakers touted Trump’s record on advancing women’s issues and addressing concerns of people of color.
As he tore into Harris in his remarks on Friday, the President also acknowledged state Rep. Al Baldasaro in a shoutout. The New Hampshire Republican previously called for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to be “shot in firing squad” during her 2016 presidential bid.
