Trump vs Harris live: Trump opens rally criticizing Harris’s CNN interview

Donald Trump spent several minutes rambling about his former reality TV show, The Apprentice.

The former president claimed that at one point his show received more viewers than the Academy Awards, and spoke about producers and fees – without any clear connection to his presidential campaign.

Speaking onstage at the Moms for Liberty conference on Friday evening, Donald Trump described Kamala Harris as a “defective person.”

“I was surprised she didn’t do a lot of interviews, but she’s not good at it, I guess,” he said. “Now everyone’s watching, and now we see she’s defective. She’s a defective person, and we don’t need another defective person as President of the United States.”

Eric Garcia, The Independent’s DC Bureau Chief, writes:

Tonight, former president Donald Trump will speak at the Moms for Liberty conference.

A few years ago, Moms for Liberty seemed to be the tip of the spear for a new brand of conservatism. Largely formed in response to school closures during the Covid-19 pandemic, it gained prominence in its pushback against what it considered inappropriate content in school libraries and curricula, most notably around race, gender and sexuality.

The group largely did so under the banner of “parents rights” Glenn Youngkin’s victory in the 2021 gubernatorial race in Virginia made the group a force to be reckoned with given Youngkin’s victory in a state Joe Biden had overwhelmingly won. Similarly, it got behind Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in his crusade against “woke.” Its brand of conservatism, specifically focused on social conservatism, seemed to offer a more palatable version of the culture wars for the suburbs that had pulled away from the GOP during Trump’s presidency.

But in the years since, the organization has fallen into crisis. Christian Ziegler, the head for the Florida Republican Party, was accused of rape in late December 2023. Ziegler’s wife Bridget was a co-founder of Moms for Liberty and shortly thereafter, the Sarasota County schoolboard voted to remove her from its board, despite the fact she was not accused of any wrongdoing.

The move significantly diminished the organization. But similarly, Democrats have hammered the style of Moms for Liberty-type conservatism, specifically call them book banners.

Similarly, Moms for Liberty-backed candidates got drubbed in the 2023 elections in everywhere from Virginia to Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a hotbed of suburban white women.

The fact that Trump is speaking at the organization shows it still has some juice. But it is nowhere near its zenith just a few years ago.

DNC Communications Director Rosemary Boeglin said that news that Donald Trump plans to vote to keep Florida’s six-week abortion ban was not a surprise.

“Of course Donald Trump will vote to keep Florida’s draconian abortion ban in place — he’s the reason it exists,” she said in a statement.

“Women in Florida and across the country are being turned away from emergency rooms, denied critical care when they need it most, and seeing their rights stripped away while Trump brags about how he ‘proudly’ overturned Roe v. Wade and made these cruel laws possible.

“Trump is showing us once again exactly who he is: An anti-choice extremist, just like his running mate JD Vance, who will stop at nothing to ban abortion nationwide — with or without Congress — as part of their dangerous Project 2025 agenda.”

Donald Trump will soon appear Friday at the annual gathering of Moms for Liberty for a “fireside chat” conversation.

The bulk of the group’s 130,000-plus members are conservatives who agree with him that parents should have more say in public education and that racial equity programs and transgender accommodations don’t belong in schools.

Donald Trump is desperate to depict his White House rival as tongue-tied, inarticulate and obsessed by identity politics, writes Jon Sopel. Her first major interview in this election campaign painted a very different picture.

Read the full is a statement from Kamala Harris on Donald Trump’s announcement that he intends to endorse Florida’s near-total abortion ban:

“Donald Trump just made his position on abortion very clear: He will vote to uphold an abortion ban so extreme it applies before many women even know they are pregnant. Trump proudly brags about the role that he played in overturning Roe v. Wade and said there should be punishment for women who have an abortion.

So, of course he thinks it’s a ‘beautiful thing’ that women in Florida and across the country are being turned away from emergency rooms, face life-threatening situations, and are forced to travel hundreds of miles for the care they need.

“And, understand: he is not done. As a part of Donald Trump’s Project 2025 agenda, he and his allies would limit access to birth control, threaten access to fertility treatments and ban abortion nationwide, with or without Congress.

“I trust women to make their own health care decisions and believe the government should never come between a woman and her doctor. When I’m President and Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom, I will proudly sign it into law. The choice in this election is clear.”

Donald Trump says he will be voting to keep near-total abortion ban in Florida, when the issue heads to the ballot box in November.

The former president told Fox News on Friday that he would be voting against Florida’s Amendment 4, which would amend the state’s constitution to say that “no law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider.”

“All of that stuff is unacceptable so I will be voting no for that reason,” he told Fox News.

It comes one day after Trump said Florida’s six-week abortion ban is “too short” and that he wanted “more weeks.” In an interview with NBC he appeared to suggest that he would vote for the abortion rights amendment to the state’s constitution.

That amendment would effectively overturn the state’s ban on abortion at six weeks of pregnancy – before most people know they are pregnant.

Donald Trump said that he was looking forward to his debate with Kamala Harris on September 10 “very much.”

Speaking about Harris attitude to Joe Biden before becoming his vice president, Trump said: “She called [Biden] a racist… she’ll probably call me a racist in a week or so, a week and a half?

“I look forward to that debate very much.”