Former President Trump on Wednesday attended what was billed as a city corridor occasion moderated by Fox Information host Sean Hannity, the place he lambasted Vice President Harris throughout a pleasant interview within the crucial battleground of Pennsylvania.
Trump took half within the city corridor, which was taped earlier within the night, after initially proposing a debate with Harris hosted by Fox Information on the identical date. Harris’s marketing campaign declined so as to add extra debates past a Sept. 10 one hosted by ABC Information. Wednesday night time’s program was solely a dialog between Trump and Hannity, with viewers questions scheduled to air on Thursday night time.
Listed here are 5 takeaways from Trump’s dialog with Hannity:
A give attention to fracking
Trump repeatedly hammered Harris on the problem of fracking, one thing that’s prone to be a focus of his marketing campaign in Pennsylvania shifting ahead.
The previous president and Hannity highlighted Harris’s feedback throughout her 2019 presidential major marketing campaign through which she pledged to ban fracking if elected. Harris has since stated she wouldn’t achieve this if she wins the presidency in November.
“Pennsylvania can’t take a chance that that answer is true,” Trump stated of Harris’s 2019 feedback.
“You have no choice, you’ve got to vote for me,” he added. “You have to have fracking.”
Fracking has led to an financial growth in elements of Pennsylvania, and a ban may price residents jobs and complicate vitality manufacturing.
Harris has been on protection over among the positions she took throughout her 2019 marketing campaign. The vp and her marketing campaign have tried to distance her from previous feedback about fracking, immigration and Medicare for All.
Trump blasts ABC forward of debate
Wednesday’s occasion got here lower than every week earlier than Trump is ready to sq. off with Harris on the controversy stage in Philadelphia.
The previous president jabbed at Harris’s intelligence, however he largely took the chance to ridicule ABC Information, which is internet hosting the occasion subsequent Tuesday.
“ABC is the worst network in terms of fairness,” Trump stated.
The previous president has repeatedly forged doubt on ABC’s equity, setting expectations for a way he could also be handled forward of his Sept. 10 debate towards Harris. It’s at present the one debate on the calendar between the 2 candidates.
“They are the most dishonest network. The meanest, the nastiest, but that is what I was presented with. I was presented with ABC,” Trump added. “I think a lot of people are going to be watching to see how nasty they are, how unfair they are. I agreed to do it because they wouldn’t do any other network.”
Trump had agreed earlier this yr to 2 debates with President Biden: one in June on CNN and one other in September hosted by ABC Information. When Harris changed Biden atop the ticket, Trump backed out of the ABC debate, just for the 2 sides to finally comply with attend the Sept. 10 occasion.
Trump returns to pivotal Pennsylvania
Wednesday marked Trump’s second time in Pennsylvania previously week, following his rally in Johnstown final Friday.
The commonwealth is poised to play a doubtlessly decisive function within the consequence of November’s election, as both candidate’s path to 270 electoral votes turns into far more troublesome with out profitable Pennsylvania.
Each the Trump marketing campaign and Harris marketing campaign have poured important time and sources into Pennsylvania. Trump’s operating mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), has made quite a few stops within the commonwealth.
Harris was in Pittsburgh on Monday alongside Biden to mark Labor Day, and her operating mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), will spend two days this week campaigning within the state.
Polling has proven a particularly tight race between Trump and Harris in Pennsylvania. A Resolution Desk HQ/The Hill common of polls reveals Harris main by lower than 1 proportion level within the state.
Additionally in attendance for Wednesday’s city corridor was David McCormick, the Republican Senate candidate operating towards Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) in November.
Trump basks in a pleasant crowd
The viewers for Wednesday’s city corridor may have simply been mistaken for that of a Trump rally.
The previous president entered the world to thunderous applause and chants of “USA” and “Trump.”
“Nice crowd,” Trump remarked with a smile as he sat down in the beginning of the occasion.
The viewers cheered virtually all of Trump’s feedback and shouted out in disapproval on the point out of Harris or the Biden administration’s insurance policies.
“This is a very tough interview,” Hannity quipped at one level.
The raucous surroundings displays the sort of crowd Trump could have hoped for when he first proposed holding a debate with Harris with a full studio viewers. The previous president thrives off of the vitality of the gang, one thing his Democratic opponents sought to deprive him of in insisting the final election debates be held with out an viewers.
Trump’s fixation on ‘weird’
Democrats have basked in needling Trump and getting underneath his pores and skin, and one line of assault appears to have achieved that greater than others: the critique that Trump and Republicans are “weird.”
The assault originated with Walz, however it shortly caught on amongst Democrats, who particularly used it towards Vance.
Trump has taken time to push again on the descriptor throughout a number of occasions, together with his city corridor with Hannity on Wednesday.
“JD is not weird. He’s a solid rock. I happen to be a very solid rock. We’re not weird. We’re other things, perhaps, but we’re not weird,” Trump stated.
“But he is a weird guy,” he stated of Walz. “He walks on the stage and there is something wrong with that guy. And he called me weird, and then the fake news media picks it up, that’s the word of the day.”
