‘She seems to have an ability to survive,’ Trump said. Harris said, ‘I think Donald Trump loves his family,’ when asked the same question.
Former President Donald Trump was asked on Wednesday to name three virtues of his Democratic opponent for the 2024 presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris, a week after Harris was asked to do the same.
In response to the challenge from an audience member at a Univision-hosted town hall event, Trump quipped that it was the “toughest question,” saying he’s “not a fan” of her policies.
“But she seems to have an ability to survive,” Trump told the voter. “Because, you know, she was out of the race, and all of a sudden she’s running for president. That’s a great ability that some people have and some people don’t have.
“She seems to have some pretty longtime friendships. … I don’t call that an ability. I call that a good thing. And she seems to have a nice way about her. … I like the way … she behaves in a certain way.”
Trump then reiterated the “survivor” statement, noting that she left the 2020 presidential race earlier than some of the other Democratic candidates.
“Because she was out of the race,” Trump said, referring to Harris’s departure from the 2020 Democratic presidential nominating contest and her having replaced President Joe Biden in the 2024 race over the past summer.
“And all of a sudden she’s running for president.”
The other candidates who ran in 2020 and dropped out, “they’re sitting home watching her on television, right?” the former president said.Harris was asked the same question by the same Univision audience member, 48-year-old Teresa Djedjro, who attended both Trump’s and Harris’s town hall-style events.
When Harris last week was prompted by Djedjro’s question, she first answered by saying how she would approach the presidency differently than Trump.
“I know that the vast majority of us has so much more in common than what separates us,” she said in response before offering criticism of Trump’s approach to politics.
“I think Donald Trump loves his family, and I think that’s very important.
“But I don’t really know him. I only met him one time. So I don’t really have much more to offer you.”
Neither Trump nor Harris know one another personally. They only met publicly for the first time at their televised debate in September.
Both Trump and Harris appeared to have ramped up their media appearances and availability in recent weeks, appearing on podcasts, at town hall events, and for other interviews.
They’ve both indicated they would go on podcaster Joe Rogan’s popular show, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” in the coming days. Rogan’s show has been one of the most popular podcasts in the United States in recent years and has a highly devoted following with millions of listeners.
A poll by YouGov last year found that 81 percent of his listeners are male and around 56 percent are under the age of 35, suggesting that either candidate could be heard by a largely young and male audience.
Recently, Harris appeared on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, also considered among the most popular in the United States, to answer various questions. Trump has appeared on podcasts hosted by Theo Von, Shawn Ryan, Logan Paul, Adin Ross, and Lex Fridman.
So far, data provided by the University of Florida show that more than 8 million people have either returned mail-in ballots or voted early and in person across about three dozen states. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.