Republican nominee Donald Trump spent his second rally since Tuesday’s debate promoting false online accusations trying to discredit Vice President Kamala Harris’s performance, alongside baseless allegations of chicanery in the reporting of crime statistics and jobs data.
“She can’t talk,” Trump told a crowd of thousands in Las Vegas on Friday, three nights after facing Harris for the first time, claiming victory and saying he would not agree to another debate. He asked if Harris had received the questions in advance, picking up on internet rumors that the host network, ABC News, has denied. Trump also referenced a Facebook post suggesting, without evidence, that Harris had audio devices in her earrings.
“I hear she got the questions, and I also heard she had something in the ear,” Trump said.
In almost 90 minutes of remarks, Trump alleged that similar plots against him had been foiled by insiders who exposed tampering with government statistics on jobs and crimes. Without evidence, he claimed a routine revision of economic data was an attempt to disadvantage his campaign.
“Fortunately, we had a leaker or a whistleblower,” Trump said. “I don’t care which. I love that person. I’m not sure who it is.”
Trump also used newly released Justice Department survey data about crime in 2023 to incorrectly claim the figures contradicted debate moderator David Muir’s use of FBI data showing a decline in overall violent crime in the first quarter of 2024.
“So David Muir owes me an apology,” Trump said. He added: “And his hair was much better five years ago.”
Trump played a clip of Harris’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in August and mocked her for repeatedly thanking the cheering crowd. He baselessly accused her of lying about working at McDonald’s during college in the 1980s and of wanting to restore the draft, which she has not supported. He paradoxically called her a communist and a fascist. He said voting for her would be “a vote for war with Russia” and “a vote to obliterate Israel.”
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