Former President Donald Trump slammed Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday night as a “lunatic” and “stupid” and questioned whether she had a problem with alcohol or drugs — the second time over the course of the day that he made false personal attacks on his Democratic opponent.
At a nearly two-hour rally Tuesday night in Greensboro, North Carolina, Trump launched into a diatribe about Harris’ Oct. 7 appearance on CBS’ “60 Minutes” that ended with his falsely suggesting she had substance abuse issues.
“She was so bad, she gave an answer. This never happened to me,” Trump said. “She gave an answer that was so bad that they changed it. They took it out, threw it out. They didn’t, like, edit a little bit, take a word out.”
“She didn’t know where the hell she was going,” Trump continued. “Did she drink? Is she on drugs? I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know, I have no idea.”
Trump has repeatedly accused the network of deceptively editing its interview to make Harris sound better. “60 Minutes” denied Trump’s claim in a statement Sunday:
“60 Minutes gave an excerpt of our interview to Face the Nation that used a longer section of her answer than that on 60 Minutes. Same question. Same answer. But a different portion of the response. When we edit any interview, whether a politician, an athlete, or movie star, we strive to be clear, accurate and on point. The portion of her answer on 60 Minutes was more succinct, which allows time for other subjects in a wide ranging 21-minute-long segment.”
“60 Minutes” noted that Trump canceled his interview with the program and said, “Our long-standing invitation to former President Trump remains open.”
The false notion of Harris’ being a drunk has grown in popularity in conservative circles online.
Responding to questions about Trump’s latest attack, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign pointed to her interview earlier Tuesday with NBC News’ Hallie Jackson framing the choice the election offered voters.
“The choice before the American people is the choice to choose to turn the page on the division and the hate and to bring our country together knowing the vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us,” Harris said in the interview.
Trump’s personal attack against Harris, the second he had lobbed at her on Tuesday alone, came as he has ramped up such attacks in recent days and weeks.
Earlier in the day, Trump ripped Harris as “the worst” and “lazy as hell” at a campaign event in Miami. He also called her “slow” and a “low-IQ person.”
At the Greensboro event on Tuesday night, Trump repeated the “low-IQ” line, slammed her as a “radical left lunatic” and said, “She’s a stupid person.” He also called her the “worst vice president in the history of our country.”
Trump has for months invoked false and harmful stereotypes about women in attacking Harris, the first female vice president in U.S. history. He in particular has zeroed in on portraying her as dumb or crazy.
But he has jacked up the frequency and tone of his insults against her in recent weeks.
At a rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, Trump called Harris a “s— vice president.”
“We can’t stand you,” he said.
At a rally in Scranton, Pennsylvania, this month, he attacked Harris as “a horrible person,” “a liar,” a “radical left Marxist” and “not a smart person.”
He said people have told him to be nicer in his speeches, but “I don’t want to be nice.”
