WASHINGTON — A day after former President Donald Trump falsely said Kamala Harris only recently “became Black,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer struck back Thursday and defended the vice president as “a strong Black woman” whom Trump is scared to debate.
“Every day either Donald Trump or [running mate JD] Vance make some kind of crazy statement, and it’s catching up to the American people. The more his poll numbers go down, the more Donald Trump is unhinged, and he’s afraid to debate even Kamala Harris,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said in an interview right before the Senate left town for its five-week summer recess.
“She’s a strong Black woman — Donald Trump may not want to say that, but it’s true, and everyone knows it’s true,” he added. “He’s afraid to debate her.”
It’s a line Harris, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee and former senator from California, has been using herself on the campaign trail, saying Trump is too afraid to debate her. “If you got something to say, say it to my face,” she said at a raucous campaign rally in Atlanta this week.
Trump and President Joe Biden had agreed to participate in a second debate on Sept. 10, hosted by ABC. But after Biden dropped out on July 21 and Harris jumped in the race, Trump has appeared to back away from the deal. He called ABC “fake news” and said he prefers friendlier Fox News to host the debate.
The same day he baselessly questioned Harris’ racial identity, Trump also denigrated Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish American official, falsely calling him a “Palestinian” and a “proud member of Hamas.” Trump and Hill Republicans have slammed Schumer for his criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with Trump suggesting that Schumer is a “bad Jew” and that Jews who support Democrats “hate their religion.”
Democrats have also criticized Vance, the senator from Ohio, for disparaging Harris, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, and other Democrats as “childless cat ladies” who are “miserable” in a 2021 interview. Vance doubled down on those remarks last week.
Republicans are “just ridiculous. The crazier they get, the less chance they have of winning the election,” Schumer said in the interview on his Senate office balcony, with sweeping views of the National Mall.
Schumer added that Republicans are doing “nutty things … weird things,” echoing a recent attack line from Harris and Democrats.
Pressed about how Democrats should respond to such rhetoric, Schumer said it should be twofold: “We have to make it clear to the American people how ludicrous, how unhinged, this group, the Trump-Vance ticket, is. But at the same time, the high road remains— we have to show the American people what we want to do for them.”
“It’s one, two,” he continued. “Go after them and show their falsities, their craziness, when they do these nutty things that they’re doing, these weird things they’re doing. But at the same time, don’t lose sight of the positive things we want to do for the American people.”
With Harris days away from choosing her vice presidential running mate, Schumer declined to weigh in about his preference or his worries that picking Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro could sharpen intraparty divisions over Israel and antisemitism.
“I have complete faith that our vice president, Kamala Harris, who will be president, is going to pick the best possible running mate, and that’s all I’m saying,” Schumer said.
Pressed again, Schumer said: “As I said, she’s going to make the best pick possible. … You know what my advice is? Make the best pick possible, so we make sure we win the election and make sure — unlike Trump did — that if you are no longer able to be president that the person is good at taking over.
“I don’t think many Americans think that Vance is capable of being a good president,” he added.
The past five weeks have been one of the wildest stretches in American politics. Biden had a disastrous debate against Trump, Trump was shot in his ear in an assassination attempt on live television, Democrats successfully pressured Biden to step down as the party’s nominee, and Harris looks poised to replace him at the top of the ticket.
Schumer pushed back against the suggestion that Americans are feeling anxious after such a tumultuous month of news, arguing that they are invigorated with Harris as the nominee.
“I have never seen such excitement, such exhilaration, from one end of the country to the other on the Harris ticket. Not only are Democrats — and we’re a very broad party, from the most progressive to the most conservative — enthusiastic about it, so are independents, and so are many Republicans,” he said.
“America is breathing a sigh of relief that Democrats have their act together. Democrats are talking about the issues they care about,” he continued. “And they’re saying: ‘Oh, thank God. It looks like Trump-Vance will not succeed.’ They’re feeling very good about that.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
