Donald Trump is watching Kamala Harris’s post-debate media blitz. He’s watching, and he’s not happy about it.
And as the former president struggles to mend his own self-inflicted wounds, Harris has taken on an energetic campaign schedule. The vice president has held multiple rallies and smaller events, while also hitting the interview circuit to reach wider audiences. Trump, meanwhile, has remained on the trail as well, with multiple events on his weekly calendar.
As the former president plays to the crowds of supporters at his rallies, however, he clearly has his mind on the larger audiences Harris is reaching with appearances on 60 Minutes, The View and even the Spotify podcast Call Her Daddy.
On Wednesday, at a rally in Pennsylvania, he highlighted some of his opponent’s media tour onstage, playing a clip of Harris’s interview with The View. Sunny Hostin, who asked Harris what she would have done differently than Joe Biden over the last four years had she been president, was a target of ridicule.
“I think the other one asking the question is dumber than Kamala,”
“She’s a dummy,” Trump continued. “That is one dumb woman.”
He quipped: “Sorry women!”
At the very same rally, he went after another female interviewer who recently sat down with his opponent: The View’s Whoopi Goldberg. His remarks about Goldberg were even uglier than his rant about her co-anchor; the ex-president labeled her a “filthy” and “disgusting” “loser” over her supposed foul language, the same language Trump himself is widely known to use.
The former president frequently attacks journalists with personal insults and derogatory language, something his media-hating followers see as a positive. His crowds cheer and laugh as the former president and his running mate take cheap swings at reporters in the room, and in one instance in 2019 a BBC camera crew was physically attacked by an irate Trump supporter during the event.
But it has long been speculated by the former president’s opponents and observers that he takes special issue with criticism from women, in a way that often makes him flustered and angry. It was a dynamic that seemed to play out on the debate stage in September after Kamala Harris quipped about supporters leaving his rallies early, as well as during an interview between Trump and members of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) in July. At that conference, he berated ABC’s Rachel Scott onstage over a question he deemed “nasty” while also blaming her for unrelated technical issues.
This article was corrected; it initially referred to Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper as a target of Trump’s rant.
