Trump says Kamala Harris will be easier to beat than Biden

WASHINGTON >> Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said today that he thinks Vice President Kamala Harris will be easier to defeat in the November election than Democratic President Joe Biden, who stepped down as his party’s nominee earlier in the day.

CNN said the former Republican president made the comments to the network shortly after Biden announced his decision. Trump later also attacked Biden on social media, saying Biden was not fit to continue serving as president.

Biden ended his re-election campaign today after fellow Democrats lost confidence in his mental acuity and ability to defeat Trump. Biden endorsed Harris to replace him as the party’s nominee.

Biden has faced growing doubts about his re-election chances after a weak and shaky performance in a televised debate against Trump late last month.

On his Truth Social platform today, Trump said Biden was “not fit to run for president, and certainly not fit to serve.”

Other leading Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, also said Biden was unfit to serve as president and finish his term if he stepped aside as the Democratic presidential nominee. Johnson explicitly called on Biden to resign.

Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform: “We will suffer tremendously because of his (Biden’s) presidency, but we will very quickly repair the damage he has done.”

Trump and Biden were virtually tied in the polls, but after the debate some polls showed Trump narrowly ahead of the president in the November election battle.

Trump’s campaign had already begun discussions about how to reallocate campaign resources in the event Biden withdraws, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said today.

Since any alternative Democratic candidate would likely have different strengths and weaknesses than Biden, the person said, the president’s withdrawal would mean rethinking where to spend advertising money and where to allocate resources in general.

Publicly, Trump campaign advisers and allies have told reporters they aren’t worried about running against Harris because they can simply link her to Biden’s record in office, particularly on immigration and inflation. They say they will try to portray Harris, and any other candidates presented as alternatives to the Democrats, as further to the left than Biden on a variety of policies.

Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., said on social media after Biden withdrew that Harris “owns Joe Biden’s entire left-wing policy history.”