Donald Trump Claims Kamala Harris Will Be Easier to Beat Than Biden in 2024 Election

On Saturday, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stated that Democrat Kamala Harris will be easier to defeat than President Joe Biden, despite several polls showing her leading the race for the Nov. 5 presidential election.

Former President Donald Trump addressed at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, northeastern Pennsylvania, a key state in the campaign. Vice President Harris will begin a bus tour of western Pennsylvania on Sunday, starting in Pittsburgh, before the Democratic National Convention begins on Monday in Chicago.

“I believe she will be easier to beat than him,” Donald Trump remarked, describing her as “radical” and a “lunatic.”

Donald Trump’s Personal Attacks and Campaign Messaging

Donald Trump has attempted to depict Harris as far left on a variety of issues. At the event, he emphasised her prior proposal for a ban on fracking, a key business in the state. Harris’ team has recently signalled that she will not support a ban.

He also continued to criticise Harris personally, despite the fact that some political analysts believe such statements could harm Donald Trump’s appeal to moderate voters.

“Have you heard her laughter? That is the laugh of a deranged guy,” Trump stated, adding that he was dissatisfied with the illustration of Harris on the cover of the most recent issue of Time magazine. “I’m much better looking than her.”

In a rambling address, Donald Trump repeated his erroneous claim that he lost the 2020 election because to fraud, disregarded the threat of climate change, and claimed that his plan to impose blanket tariffs on foreign goods would not act as a tax on American consumers, an argument that most economists dispute.

The Mohegan Sun Arena, where Trump appeared, has a seating capacity of around 8,000 and was nearly full when he began speaking. However, the audience began to decrease after one hour. He talked for over 100 minutes in all.

Donald Trump claimed Harris should have done more to address inflation and other concerns since she and Biden joined office. If reelected, he stated that he will issue an executive order requiring cabinet secretaries and agency heads to take steps to reduce prices.

“Another rally, same old show,” Joseph Costello, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign, said in a statement in response to Trump’s rally speech, which he described as full of “lies, name-calling, and confused rants.”

Pennsylvania was one of three Rust Belt states, along with Wisconsin and Michigan, that contributed to Trump’s unexpected victory in 2016. Biden, who grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, switched the trio back to the Democrats in 2020.

With 19 electoral votes out of the 270 required to secure the White House, compared to 15 in Michigan and 10 in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania could be the largest prize in this year’s election, tipping the balance for either candidate.

Harris’ arrival into the race after Biden’s reelection attempt ended last month has upended the race, wiping down Trump’s lead built in Biden’s last weeks of campaigning. Harris leads Donald Trump by more over two percentage points in Pennsylvania, according to polling website FiveThirtyEight.

In 2016, Donald Trump won Pennsylvania by around 44,000 votes, a margin of less than one percentage point, while Biden won by slightly more than 80,000 votes in 2020, a margin of 1.2 points.

Both parties have made the state a key priority, flooding the airwaves with ads. Since Biden pulled out in late July, more than $110 million has been spent on advertising in seven battleground states, with Pennsylvania receiving about $42 million, more than any other state, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing data from the tracking site AdImpact.

Democratic and Republican groups have already reserved $114 million in ad time in Pennsylvania from late August to the election, more than doubling the $55 million reserved in Arizona, the next highest number, according to AdImpact.

The Harris campaign announced on Saturday that it expected to spend at least $370 million on internet and television commercials countrywide between the Labour Day vacation on September 2 and Election Day.

Arizona, North Carolina, Nevada, and Georgia are among the battleground states, all of which are considered vital to winning the election.

According to new surveys released on Saturday by the New York Times, Harris leads Trump among likely voters in Arizona, 50% to 45%, and North Carolina, 49% to 47%, while the former president’s margin is narrowing in Nevada, 47% to 49%, and Georgia, 46% to 50%. A Trump campaign pollster said that the survey results underestimated the Republican candidate’s support.

Donald Trump will discuss the economy at a campaign event in York, Pennsylvania, on Monday. His running mate, United States Senator JD Vance, will also have an event in Philadelphia that day.

Donald Trump’s visit to Wilkes-Barre in Luzerne County was intended to shore up support among the white, non-college-educated voters who propelled him to victory in 2016. The blue-collar county voted Democratic for decades before strongly supporting Trump in 2016, reflecting other similar places throughout the country.

Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, will make multiple stops in Allegheny and Beaver counties on Sunday, according to the campaign. The tour marks Harris, Walz, and their spouses’ first campaign together since their presidential ticket’s inaugural rally in Philadelphia earlier this month.