(Bloomberg) -- Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled a new line of attack on the campaign trail Friday, criticizing Donald Trump for canceling planned media appearances and suggesting the 78-year-old former president was not up for the rigors of the job.
The volley from Harris returned the question of a candidate’s age to center stage, just months after persistent concerns over 81-year-old President Joe Biden’s health ultimately overwhelmed his reelection campaign. Harris in Michigan questioned whether Trump was “fit to do the job.”
“I’ve been hearing reports that his team, at least, is saying he’s suffering from exhaustion, and that’s apparently the excuse for why he’s not doing interviews,” Harris told reporters in Grand Rapids, Michigan, before a campaign stop in the swing state.
The Democratic presidential nominee, 59, cited Trump’s refusal to take part in another debate and pointed out that while she has agreed to do a CNN town hall the Republican nominee has not accepted the invitation.
“Being president of the United States is one of the hardest jobs in the world, and so we really do need to ask, if he’s exhausted being on the campaign trail, is he fit to do the job? And I think that’s a question that is an open-ended question he needs to answer,” Harris added.
Harris’ comments follow a report from Politico that said Trump’s team had been in talks for him to appear on The Shade Room, an online platform, for an interview. When the site pushed for a date to schedule the former president, they were told that he was “exhausted” and declining some interviews, according to the report, which cited people familiar with those conversations.
A Trump campaign spokesperson told Politico that Trump “has more energy and a harder work ethic than anyone in politics.”
The former president’s planned appearance at a National Rifle Association event has also been reportedly canceled. Trump has called off other media appearances in recent weeks, including one with CNBC. CBS News’ 60 Minutes also said the Republican nominee backed out of an interview, a claim Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung dismissed.
“There were initial discussions, but nothing was ever scheduled or locked in,” Cheung said in an Oct. 1 post on X.
Even with the recent cancellations, Trump has sat for significantly more interviews than Harris since her entry into the race.
Trump was also in Michigan Friday, sitting for a roundtable discussion in Oakland County before a rally in Detroit, part of a broader effort from the former president to court Black voters.
His rally came to a sudden halt for about 20 minutes after the audio cut out, giving the Harris campaign more ammunition. In posts on X, the campaign showed clips of Trump walking around the stage as he waited for the problem to resolve and his later remarks, calling him “exhausted” and “grumpy.”
Trump eventually resumed his speech but complained about the microphone, saying, “I’m blowing out my voice to get this sucker done.”
Later in his remarks, he returned to the topic, saying, “When I get up tomorrow and I can’t speak, I’m going to say Detroit did it to me.”
Last weekend, Harris released a health summary, and her campaign called on Trump to release a similar report from his physicians.
Trump, speaking to reporters Friday, dismissed the need to provide additional medical information while criticizing Harris.
“I want to see her do a cognitive test,” Trump said.
Bizarre Town Hall
Harris performed well in her first debate against Trump in September and has pressed him to take the stage against her again — calls the former president has rejected.
The vice president’s campaign also seized on a bizarre Trump town hall earlier this week, at which he ended a question-and-answer session after two audience members fainted and proceeded to have staff play music while he stayed on stage and danced to songs.
Harris’ campaign posted video on X of Trump standing on stage as the music played, describing him as appearing “lost, confused, and frozen on stage” and in a separate tweet highlighted a moment when Trump appeared to confuse the date of the election.
There are a little over two weeks until Election Day, but voting is already underway in Michigan, where the state has received more than 944,000 absentee ballots. Trump and Harris’ competing Michigan trips come a day before early in-person voting is set to kick off in Detroit on Saturday. Other jurisdictions in the state follow suit in the coming days.
(Updates with Trump rally in 11th paragraph.)
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.