Former President Donald Trump unloaded on Vice President Kamala Harris and her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, in a television interview Wednesday, casting them as radicals who will defund the police and cause energy prices to soar.
Speaking to “Fox & Friends,” Mr. Trump argued that Mr. Walz is more to the left than Ms. Harris or several well-known progressives.
“He’s worse than they are,” Mr. Trump said. “He’s a smarter version of [Ms. Harris], if you want to know the truth. He’s probably about the same as [Sen.] Bernie Sanders.”
“Anything transgender, he thinks is great,” Mr. Trump said. “He’s not where the country is, on anything.”
Mr. Trump, like other Republicans, also suggested it was antisemitic and “insulting to Jewish people” that Ms. Harris selected Mr. Walz instead of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
“I was shocked when it came to the final two that she didn’t pick Shapiro,” Mr. Trump said. “I was surprised.”
SEE ALSO: Harris introduces running mate Walz to nation as Midwestern, middle-class warrior
Media reports suggest Ms. Harris had a better personal rapport with Mr. Walz and it might have been difficult for Mr. Shapiro to leave his job as governor.
Mr. Trump is trying to take his Democratic opponents down a peg as Ms. Harris enjoys a honeymoon period following President Biden’s decision to drop his reelection bid.
Polls show that Ms. Harris is competitive with Mr. Trump in key states, and the FiveThirtyEight polling average has her leading Mr. Trump nationally by nearly 2 percentage points.
Ms. Harris selected Mr. Walz on Tuesday and held an ebullient rally with him in Philadelphia, a Democratic stronghold in the must-win state of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Walz introduced himself as a regular guy who is more in touch with America than Mr. Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio.
“Like all regular people I grew up with in the heartland, J.D. Vance studied at Yale, had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires and then wrote a best-seller trashing that community,” he said. “C’mon, that’s not what Middle America is.”
Mr. Trump targeted Pennsylvanian voters in his interview. He said Ms. Harris is a fracking opponent, which would cost jobs in the Keystone State.
“No fracking, that means your energy prices are going to go through the roof,” Mr. Trump said, adding about politicians: “Their first thought is the thought they end up doing. She’s for no fracking.”
Mr. Trump also fielded questions from a supportive crowd at the motorcycle gathering in Sturgis, South Dakota. One man asked the former president about housing costs, and Mr. Trump pivoted back to food and energy prices.
“Bacon has quadrupled, you can’t order bacon, you can’t order anything,” Mr. Trump said, adding that lower energy costs would help other costs come down.
He also ticked through a number of his campaign ideas, saying there should be no tax on tip wages or Social Security benefits to seniors.
He called Mr. Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan “the lowest point in the history of our country” and pledged to crack down on illegal immigration.
“We’re gonna close up the border,” he said. “We’re gonna let people come in, but they have to come in legally.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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