Trump mocks Kamala Harris’ interview, says she ‘rambled incoherently’

NEW YORK - Even before US Vice-President Kamala Harris’ interview with CNN aired on the night of Aug 29, former president Donald Trump began attacking it.

In the morning, he criticised her for having her running mate, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, on hand beside her.

After seeing a clip of the interview, he criticised her for rambling “incoherently”.

And about half an hour before the interview was broadcast, he told a crowd in Wisconsin that the setting – a table for four at a restaurant in Savannah, Georgia – made Ms Harris look unpresidential.

“She was sitting behind that desk, this massive desk, and she didn’t look like a leader today,” Trump said at a town hall in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

“I’ll be honest. I don’t see her negotiating with President Xi of China. I don’t see her with (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un, like we did with Kim Jong Un. So we’re going to have to see what happens.”

After the interview

concluded, the usually loquacious Trump reduced his take to a single word on Truth Social, his social media platform: “BORING!!!”

Trump and his campaign have spent weeks criticising Ms Harris

for not holding a news conference with reporters

or sitting for a major interview.

After she became the Democratic nominee, Trump held two news conferences aimed at taunting Ms Harris and showing his willingness to address the media.

Last week, he granted a number of interviews to mainstream media outlets.

But after Ms Harris agreed to an interview with Ms Dana Bash on CNN, Trump began criticising her almost immediately.

He opened on Aug 29 with a social media post predicting “inevitable Kamala stumbles” and tried to press Ms Bash to be “fair but tough”.

He argued that Mr Walz might give Ms Harris an undue advantage, and seeded doubts about the interview’s integrity.

And after CNN aired a clip on Aug 29 evening in which Ms Bash asked about Ms Harris’ shifting positions since her failed 2020 presidential bid, Trump criticised the “very weakly phrased question” and Ms Harris’ answer, saying she “rambled incoherently”.

While the interview was airing, Trump suggested that he was not impressed with Ms Harris’ responses.

“I look so forward to Debating Comrade Comrade Kamala Harris and exposing her for the fraud she is,” he wrote on Truth Social, repeating “Comrade”. He added: “Harris has changed every one of her long-held positions, on everything.” NYTIMES