Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump made plenty of headlines yesterday as he gave a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort. During the hour-long speech and exchange with reporters, the former president showed a new eagerness to debate Vice President Kamala Harris, told a story about a helicopter ride that didn’t happen, and bizarrely brought Martin Luther King Jr. into a debate over crowd sizes.
Trump changes tune on debating Harris
Trump’s meeting with reporters Thursday was the first time he has held a press conference since Harris officially became his opponent for the November presidential election. During the hour-long event, Trump indicated that he was looking to debate Harris three times, once each on ABC, NBC and Fox. This presented a shift for Trump. Although he had initially agreed to the Sept. 10 debate with President Joe Biden on ABC, he appeared to back out after Harris became the nominee, proposing a debate on the more Trump-friendly Fox instead. Now, the original ABC debate is back on after Trump reconfirmed his participation. Harris confirmed that she is “looking forward to debating Donald Trump” on Sept. 10.
VP Harris to NBC News in Wayne, MI:
“I am looking forward to debating Donald Trump and we have a date of September 10. I hear he’s finally committed to it and I’m looking forward to it.” pic.twitter.com/PlogS652o3
— Shaquille Brewster (@shaqbrewster) August 8, 2024
Trump claims bigger crowd than “I Have a Dream” speech
Elsewhere in the back and forth with the press, Trump made a variety of strange comments. He spent several minutes complaining that the media underestimated the size of the crowds at his rallies and overestimated those for Harris. Trump supported his claim by giving wildly inaccurate estimates that inflated the size of his rallies and downsized those held by Harris.
"I have 10 times, 20 times, 30 times the crowd size" — Trump gets big mad at a reporter who asks him about Kamala Harris's large crowd sizes pic.twitter.com/X0QHeSFiHH
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 8, 2024
Trump returned to the issue of crowd sizes later, claiming that his rally on Jan. 6 drew a larger crowd than the one that came to listen to Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
Trump says he had a bigger crowd on Jan. 6 than Dr. Martin Luther King did for his famous "I Have a Dream” speech:
“Nobody has spoken to crowds bigger than me” pic.twitter.com/DVowRgYatL
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) August 8, 2024
King’s daughter Bernice clarified on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Trump’s claim is “absolutely not true” and she wrote, “I really wish that people would stop using my father to support fallacy.”
Absolutely not true. I really wish that people would stop using my father to support fallacy. https://t.co/yByOqt4JV2 pic.twitter.com/OWsSsppACv
— Be A King (@BerniceKing) August 8, 2024
Emergency helicopter landing that didn’t happen
In another strange moment, Trump told a story about taking a helicopter ride with Willie Brown, who served as San Francisco’s first Black mayor and dated Harris in the mid 1990s. Trump claimed that Brown said negative things about Harris and that the trip was memorable because their helicopter nearly crashed. In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Willie Brown was quick to point out that he has never shared a helicopter with Trump. The former president appeared to be mixing him up with Jerry Brown, the former governor of California, who is white. Per NBC News, a representative for Jerry Brown confirmed that he took a helicopter ride with Trump but clarified that there was no emergency and that they did not discuss Harris.
These bizarre statements, as well as Trump’s newfound desire to sign up for multiple debates, demonstrate how worried Trump appears to be as Harris’ campaign gains popularity. With polls showing Harris pulling ahead of Trump in the race, his increasingly desperate and unhinged behavior could continue.
