HARRISBURG — Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday painted a bleak picture of the U.S. during a potential Kamala Harris presidency — predicting war and depression — and said it appears the vice president avoids free-ranging interviews and press conferences.
“This is a woman who is dangerous,” Trump said during a television show taping before a live audience in a large arena. “She loses her train of thought a lot. That’s why she doesn’t want to do interviews.”
The jabs by the Republican presidential nominee at Ms. Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, came with the election two months away and the first debate faceoff between the candidates only six days away. Fox News host Sean Hannity, who taped the town hall-style interview for showing later Wednesday night, asked Trump about the Sept. 10 debate to be hosted by ABC News.
Specifically, he tried to get Trump to respond to what Ms. Harris’ debate plan might be. Trump avoided specifics, said he had debated many times, and quoted the boxer Mike Tyson on strategy.
“Everybody has a plan until they are punched in the face,” Trump said. In debates, he said, you “have to sort of go with it.”
The taping of the town hall event took place in the 7,300-seat New Holland Arena in the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center.
Trump held a rally before a full house in the same venue on July 31. The television-taping dynamic on Wednesday had a different feel. Mr. Hannity and Trump sat facing each other on a well-lit stage in the center of a darkened arena, which was only about one-third to one-half full.
Mr. Hannity said a limit was placed on the number of people admitted.
Trump got frequent cheers and chants from the partisan crowd. He hammered away at issues he has hit regularly: immigration, rising prices, what he said would be a Harris ban on fracking, and tension and war in other parts of the world.
Trump said that regardless of what Ms. Harris has said, she was in charge of the border throughout the presidency of Joe Biden. “It’s the worst border in the history of the world,” he said.
Referring to Ms. Harris’ proposal for a federal ban on price gouging, Trump predicted any attempt at price controls would lead to scarcity of product and massive inflation. On fracking, he said it is impossible for Ms. Harris to erase what Trump described as a years-long record of opposing the industry — one that Trump said is tied to 500,000 jobs, many of them in Pennsylvania.
He reiterated his oft-stated description of the Biden-Harris administration as weak and dangerously discombobulated on foreign policy, and promised a stronger U.S. image if he wins. “We aren’t going to have World War III if I’m elected,” Trump said.
National polling averages shown on the ABC News FiveThirtyEight polling website had Ms. Harris ahead 47% to 43.9% Wednesday afternoon. In battleground Pennsylvania, though, a CNN poll released Wednesday showed the two major party nominees in a tie at 47% each. Various other polls in recent weeks have shown Trump ahead slightly, Ms. Harris ahead slightly, or had them in a tie.
Some of those in the Farm Show crowd didn’t put much stock in the polls.
Kathryn Palm, 54, and her husband Andrew Palm, 55, drove about 90 minutes from Westminster, Md., to be at the event.
“My honest opinion is there are a lot of people who are going to go to the polls and silently vote for Donald Trump,” Ms. Palm said.
She and her husband, a retired Navy pilot, said rising prices and the economy are a big issue.
“We go to BJ’s. It’s just insane,” Mr. Palm said. He specifically cited the price of a case of Diet Coke as having doubled in the past four years. “Eggs, butter, bacon. Everything. You can’t get out of the place for like less than $300 or $400.”
Suburban Harrisburg resident Jacob Bruker, a 32-year-old accountant, said the border and the economy were his top issues. “Without a border, you don’t have a country,” he said. “My house has walls.”
Mr. Bruker also said he takes the polling numbers with a grain of salt. “I know in 2016, Trump definitely outperformed the polls,” he said.
Harris on Wednesday was in New Hampshire speaking about plans to assist small businesses.
Pennsylvania and its 19 crucial electoral votes, though, have been a magnet for Trump and Ms. Harris and their surrogates as the campaign has intensified.
Ms. Harris appeared in Pittsburgh with President Joe Biden on Labor Day. During that visit, she said U.S. Steel should remain “American-owned and American-operated.” In an Aug. 19 appearance at a manufacturing facility in York, Trump had taken a stand on the issue, saying, “I will stop Japan from buying United States Steel.”
First Published: September 5, 2024, 1:15 a.m.
Updated: September 5, 2024, 2:59 p.m.
