Robert Mendick
Chief Reporter.
Rozina Sabur
Deputy US Editor
29 September 2024 11:24pm
Donald Trump ignored the advice of one of his staunchest allies by repeating his claim that Kamala Harris is “mentally impaired”.
Hours after Lindsey Graham, the hardline senator for South Carolina, rebuked Trump for the personal attack on Ms Harris, the former president doubled down at a rally in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania.
In a speech stretching beyond 100 minutes, Trump, 78, told his supporters gathered at the convention centre in Erie County on Sunday: “Crooked Joe Biden became mentally impaired. But lying Kamala Harris, honestly, I believe she was born that way.”
He went on to insist “there’s something wrong with Kamala”, echoing a speech made the day before in Wisconsin, another swing state in the Rust Belt where he pontificated on President Biden and Ms Harris’s term in office, saying: “And if you think about it, only a mentally disabled person could have allowed this to happen to our country.”
Trump has previously made racially inflammatory comments about Ms Harris’s dual heritage, claiming she only recently “turned black”, as well as calling her “stupid,” “weak” and “dumb as a rock”.
The comments made on Saturday earned widespread opprobrium, including from within the Republican Party, most notably from the loyalist Mr Graham. Asked what he thought of the latest personal attack, the influential senator told CNN on Sunday morning: “I just think the better course to take is to prosecute the case that her policies are destroying the country.”
Mr Graham described Ms Harris and her policies as “crazy liberal” but his rebuke to Trump mirrors advice from Republican strategists to avoid personal attacks on his rival amid fears it is alienating moderate swing voters.
Tom Emmer, a Minnesota Congressman who has been working with Trump’s running mate JD Vance ahead of Tuesday’s vice-presidential debate, told ABC News: “I think we should stick to the issues.”
Larry Hogan, a former Republican governor of Maryland who is running for the Senate on a platform distancing himself from Trump, said: “I think that’s insulting not only to the vice-president, but to people that actually do have mental disabilities. I’ve said for years that Trump’s divisive rhetoric is something we can do without.”
In a statement, Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, declined to respond to the criticism of his boss, preferring instead to criticise the vice-president, saying her record on immigration made her unfit to serve as president.
The American Association of People with Disabilities condemned Trump. In a statement issued on Sunday, Maria Town, the organisation’s chief executive said: “Donald Trump’s ableist comments yesterday say far more about him and his inaccurate, hateful biases against disabled people than it does about Vice-President Harris, or any person with a disability.
“Trump holds the ableist, false belief that if a person has a disability, they are less human and less worthy of dignity. These perceptions are incorrect, and are harmful to people with disabilities.”
She pointed out that “Abraham Lincoln had depression. George Washington, Dwight Eisenhower, and others were all known to have learning disabilities”, adding: “I hope all of those examples can disabuse our nation of the idea that the presence of a disability alone can or should be disqualifying for a president.”
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