(The Hill) — Former President Trump campaigned in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Saturday and went after Vice President Harris’s physical appearance as his Republican allies have pushed him to instead focus on the policy differences with his political opponent.
“I am much better looking than her,” Trump told supporters at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. “I’m a better-looking person than Kamala.”
The former president made the comments while referencing a recent “Time” cover that features Harris.
“Time Magazine doesn’t have a picture of her. They have this unbelievable artist drawing her,” he said. “They took a lot of pictures that didn’t work out so they hired a sketch artist.”
The attack line from Trump was one of many against Harris and her Democratic allies at Saturday’s rally.
“What happened to Biden? I was running against Biden and now I’m running against someone else,” Trump said. “I said, who am I running against, Harris? I said, ‘Who the hell is Harris?’”
In a statement following the rally, the Harris campaign said “another rally, same old show.”
“Donald Trump can’t sell his dangerous Project 2025 agenda to raise taxes on working families by $3,900, terminate the Affordable Care Act, and rip away our freedoms, so he resorts to lies, name-calling, and confused rants,” said Joseph Costello, a campaign spokesperson.
Trump jabbed at Pennsylvania Democrats including the state’s Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) and Sen. Bob Casey (D), who is running for reelection.
The former president claimed that the Harris campaign did not choose Shapiro to be her running mate “because he is Jewish” and repeated his criticism of Jewish voters who vote for Democrats.
Trump also lashed out against various broadcast news networks, including ABC News, which is hosting the presidential debate in September.
The former president’s remarks come as a number of Republicans including his former adviser Kellyanne Conway, have called on him to avoid personal insults and focus on policy in his campaign rhetoric.
“The winning formula for President Trump is very plain to see,” Conway told Fox Business last week. “It’s fewer insults, more insights and that policy contrast.”
However, Trump still did talk policy throughout the rally, touching on immigration, crime, and foreign policy. Trump also took several jabs at Harris’s economic plan that she debuted on Friday.
“After causing catastrophic inflation, Comrade Kamala announced that she wants to institute socialist price controls,” Trump said, calling it “the Maduro plan” of “the old Soviet Union.”
Trump went on to invite a Venezuelan supporter on stage who recalled the country’s former President Hugo Chavez coming to power.
The former president also criticized Harris over her stance on fracking — an energy and environment issue very familiar to Pennsylvania voters.
“You do know she’s against this whole energy thing that you have going, which is by far the most important thing you have from an economic standpoint, a job standpoint,” Trump said.
“She’s vowed that she will ban fracking,” he said. “Pennsylvania is going to always be fracking because we desperately need the energy and we desperately need the jobs.”
Pennsylvania is set to play a deciding role in November’s election with its 19 Electoral College votes up for grabs. Trump narrowly flipped the state in 2016, but then narrowly lost it to Biden in 2020. The latest average from The Hill and Decision Desk HQ shows Harris leading Trump by 0.8 percentage points.
