Transcript
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Donald Trump has made his first appearance since Vice President Kamala Harris announced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. At a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida, the former president spoke for more than an hour, attacked Walz and Harris, not to mention reporters in the room who were asking him questions. NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben is here to tell us about it. Hey, Danielle.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Hey, Mary Louise.
KELLY: I want to start with some actual news from this presser, which is that Trump has agreed to presidential debates - three of them. When will they be?
KURTZLEBEN: Right. So one of the first things he said in this presser is that he would do those three debates in September, on the 4, 10 and 25 on Fox, NBC and ABC. Now, we should say not all of those dates are set. As of right now, ABC has confirmed that the September 10 debate is on on their network. For the other two, we're waiting for a response from Team Harris. But we should say this all comes after weeks of a lack of clarity on this. Just days ago, Trump said he would only do a September 4 debate on Fox or nothing at all. But now this is a change.
KELLY: OK. So that's what's happening on the debate front. This went on, though, I said, for more than an hour. As someone who watches a lot of Trump, what stood out to you?
KURTZLEBEN: All right. Well, first off, even by Trump standards, this was a chaotic, angry press conference, so we're not going to get to everything here. But one thing is that this was very combative. When one reporter asked why he isn't doing more campaign events, he responded, quote, "what a stupid question." Beyond that, a few times on a few answers, he really repeated himself in a way that you can really see as him protesting too much. For example, he stressed over and over he's happy to face Harris; he's not upset. He was asked about Harris' crowd size. He said he was happy to talk about it. In addition, he said a couple of times that he thinks abortion just isn't that important to voters right now.
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DONALD TRUMP: I think that abortion has become much less of an issue. It's a very small - I think it's actually going to be a very small issue. What I've done is I've done what every Democrat and every Republican wanted to have done.
KURTZLEBEN: Now, all that might come as a surprise to a lot of voters who not only are - care a lot about abortion, but also are upset about what - about the overturning of Roe v. Wade. And that is something that Trump says a lot on the stump, that everybody wanted that. Well, that is not true.
KELLY: Aside from being combative with reporters, he also really insulted Kamala Harris - more than once.
KURTZLEBEN: Yes. He called her incompetent. Multiple times, he said she isn't smart - that she's not as smart as Joe Biden or as Hillary Clinton. And at one point, he was asked why Harris is rising in the polls, and this was his response.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TRUMP: She's a woman. She represents certain groups of people.
KURTZLEBEN: So that's about as dismissive as you can get, not only to her, but to the voters who have chosen to support her. Now, this is on top of several outrageous statements he made. For example, comparing his January 6 crowd size to Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.
Altogether, look, three major cable networks covered this presser. If you are a voter who is just tuning in, you may have seen this. And seeing this angry, rambling presser - it might have really changed your opinion of Trump.
KELLY: NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben. Thanks.
KURTZLEBEN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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