(WASHINGTON) — In a long and, at times, rambling news conference on Thursday, former President Donald Trump repeated numerous falsehoods as he lashed out against Vice President Kamala Harris, his opponent in the presidential race.
Trump led the event, his first open news conference since Gov. Tim Walz was named Harris’ running mate, by announcing he agreed to ABC News’ Sept. 10 debate against Harris. Trump did not mention Walz by name during the news conference at Mar-a-Lago, which went on for over an hour.
Trump responded to several questions from the press but went off-topic several times to push false claims on several topics, including the outcome of the 2020 election. Here are some of the major takeaways:
Trump continues attacks on Harris’ race, gender, intelligence
Trump continued to push racist rhetoric about false claims that Harris only recently brought up her Black heritage.
“Well, you’ll have to ask her that question because she’s the one who said it; I didn’t say it,” Trump falsely stated. “So, you’ll have to ask her.”
Earlier, Trump also appeared to attribute Harris’ success to her gender while questioning her intelligence.
“I’m not a big fan of his brain, but I think that she’s actually not as smart as he is,” he said, bringing up his former opponent, President Joe Biden.
“Well … uh, she’s a woman. She represents certain groups of people,” Trump added.
Harris was asked about Trump’s comments later in the day.
“I was too busy talking to voters. I didn’t hear them,” she told reporters.
Trump gets defensive when asked about Harris’ rallies
Trump grew increasingly angry when asked about Harris’ crowd size at her recent rallies.
“Oh, give me a break,” he told a reporter.
“I’ve spoken to the biggest crowds. Nobody’s spoken to crowds bigger than me,” he said.
Trump brought back the issue of crowd size, specifically the crowd in Washington D.C., on Jan. 6. when asked if there was a peaceful transfer of power when he left office.
The former president compared his speech that day, before the riot, to that of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 March on Washington, which the civil rights leader delivered to an estimated crowd of 200,000 people, according to the U.S. Census.
“If you look at Martin Luther King when he did his speech, his great speech, and you look at ours, same real estate, same everything, same number of people. If not, we had more,” he said.
An estimated 10,000 people came onto Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, according to records.
Trump appears to shift stance on abortion pills
Trump also appeared to show a shift in his stance on abortion pills, opening up the possibility of directing the Food and Drug Administration to revoke access to mifepristone, a move supported by Project 2025.
“Absolutely. And those things are pretty, open and humane,” he said when asked if he would ask the FDA to ban the drug. “But you have to be able to have a vote. And all I want to do is give everybody a vote, and the votes are taking place right now as we speak.”
The Trump campaign later clarified the former president’s belief that abortion laws should be left up to the states.
“As President Trump said, he wants ‘everybody to vote’ on issues regarding abortion, which is consistent with his long-held position of supporting the rights of states to make decisions on abortion,” Trump Campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement after the news conference.
Trump told reporters the abortion issue has “very much tempered down.”
“It’s a very small,” he claimed, “I think it’s actually going to be a very small issue.”
An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll released last month found that 57% of Americans said access to abortion was a highly-important factor in their vote.
The former president said he supports abortion for exceptions but that he felt the matter should be left up to the states.
He was asked specifically about Florida, which will have a ballot measure seeking to establish a constitutional right to abortion before fetal viability. Trump said he would hold a press conference about the topic “at some point in the near future.”
“Florida does have a vote coming up on that, and I think probably the vote will go in a little more liberal way than people thought. But I’ll be announcing that at the appropriate time,” he said.
Trump says Harris’ ‘honeymoon’ will continue through DNC
Harris and Walz are currently on a campaign tour hitting seven battleground states.
Trump said he was not doing the same type of tour because he felt he was leading in those states.
He also predicted that Harris’ “honeymoon period” isn’t going to last long.
“Oh, it’s going to end. The honeymoon period is going to end. Look, she’s got a little period, she’s got a convention coming up,” he said.
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