SCRANTON, Pa. — (AP) — Former President Donald Trump offered his prayers to those in the path of Hurricane Milton as it began to lash Florida while continuing to insult his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, and other women — saying he had no interest in stopping even if it turned off female voters.
“I don’t want to be nice,” Trump said at his first of two rallies of the day in the pivotal battleground state of Pennsylvania. “You know, somebody said, ‘You should be nicer. Women won’t like it.’ I said, ’I don’t care.”
Trump kept up his campaign schedule even as the storm threatened to overshadow the presidential race with fears that it would cause catastrophic damage in Tampa and other parts of Florida's Gulf Coast. Harris was to fly to Nevada later Wednesday for a western campaign swing, but first attended a briefing on the storm and the federal response that President Joe Biden received at the White House.
Speaking in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Trump lobbed personal insults at Harris — calling her “grossly incompetent" and “totally ill-quipped to do the job of being President of the United States” — and went after one of the hosts of ABC’s “The View,” which Harris appeared on Tuesday.
He called Sunny Hostin, who is Black and Latina, “dumber than Kamala."
”That is one dumb woman. Sorry. I’m sorry, women, she’s a dummy," he said of Hostin, who had asked Harris if there was anything she would have done differently than Biden over the last four years. Harris replied that “not a thing comes to mind" — a line the Trump campaign has seized on as it tries to paint her as nothing more than a continuation of Biden's unpopular presidency in the race's final stretch.
In a Tuesday social media post, Trump had said Harris was “being exposed as a ‘dummy’" and called the hosts of the daytime talk show “degenerates.”
He will appear in Reading, Pennsylvania, later on Wednesday, where he is expected to talk about the economy and immigration in a city that is two-thirds Hispanic.
Hurricane Milton has already disrupted the campaign, just two weeks after Hurricane Helene devastated large swaths of the Southeast. Trump, who moved to Florida after he left the White House, postponed a virtual event Tuesday night focused on health care and postponed a Univision town hall that was supposed to happen in Miami.
Harris has her own Univision town hall planned for Thursday in Las Vegas before returning to Arizona for her second visit to both states in less than two weeks.
Trump, at his rally in Scranton — Biden's birthplace — said he was praying for those in the hurricane's path and wanted to “send our love to everyone in Florida. They’re going through a big one tonight.”
“We’re praying for them and asking God to keep them all safe, all those people. I’ve never seen a hurricane like that," he went on. “So often you know, they talk about it and they talk talk talk because they want you to watch. This is the real deal. This is a bad one.”
Campaigning in Arizona, where early voting kicked off on Wednesday, Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, called on the country to come together to support those who will be impacted.
“Those are Americans. Those are our neighbors. Those are our family members. Those are our friends,” he said, calling unifying across party lines in the face of natural disasters “critical.”
“It’s not about politics. It’s about basic human decency,” Walz said. “It’s about leadership and character.
Milton is approaching just days after Hurricane Helene killed more than 220 people in six Southeastern states and left behind a swath of destruction that federal, state and local authorities are trying to alleviate even as they now brace for the next storm.
Both Biden and Harris denounced the misinformation and disinformation surrounding the federal response to Helene, including the false assertion that there is a cap on assistance funding families can receive. They also denounced the false notion that funding is being diverted away from Republican-heavy areas and to people in the country illegally and that federal authorities offering aid could eventually steal property from its owners. Both singled out Trump as driving much of the falsehoods.
“I want to be clear about something. Over the last few weeks, there’s been a reckless, irresponsible, and relentless promotion of disinformation and outright lies that are disturbing people," Biden said during the Milton briefing. "It’s undermining confidence in the incredible rescue and recovery work that has already been taken and will continue to be taken. And it’s harmful to those who need help the most.”
"What a ridiculous thing to say," Biden said of the false rumors that funding is being diverted to migrants in the country illegally. Biden also referenced Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene 's false suggestion that "I control the weather," he said, calling her comments like something "out of a comic book."
“It’s beyond ridiculous," Biden said. "It’s got to stop.”
He also told Deanne Criswell, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, “You’re doing a hell of a job.”
Harris said that once the hurricane passes, “We will be there to help folks rebuild.”
“This is a storm that is expected to be of historic proportion," she said. Addressing Florida residents, Harris added, "Many of you, I know are tough, and you’ve ridden out these hurricanes before. This one is going to be different.”
Harris also joined a phone call with Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about ongoing tensions in the Middle East. Trump’s campaign said that the former president had spoken to Netanyahu after Iran launched recent missile attacks on Israel.
“World leaders want to speak and meet with President Trump because they know he will soon be returning to the White House and will restore peace around the globe,” Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Biden, meanwhile, already postponed a trip scheduled this week to Germany and Angola, saying, "I just don't think I can be out of the country at this time."
Harris spent Tuesday in New York taping interviews on "The View," with radio personality Howard Stern and on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." During her interview on "The View" and later amid her taping with Colbert, Harris failed to name major ways her future administration would be substantially different from Biden's.
Trump and his campaign seized on the statement, with Trump posting that Harris said “she would have done nothing different” than Biden whom he called “the WORST PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.”
Harris had her own sharp words for her opponent. Reacting to reports in Bob Woodward 's new book, "War" that Trump, while president, secretly sent COVID-19 test kits to Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2020, when they were hard to find in the United States, she said, "You remember what those days were like?"
"You remember how many people did not have tests and were trying to scramble to get them?" Harris asked during the taping with Colbert. “Remember how rare it was to have them?”
She said of Trump, “And this man is giving COVID test kits to Vladimir Putin. Think about what this means,” before adding, “He thinks Vladimir Putin is his friend. What about the American people? They should be your first friends.”
Trump denied the reporting. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that the U.S. sent test kits. which he referred to as “testers," but denied that the exchange occurred in secret.
“There were no secret shipments. The pandemic was starting back then," Peskov said in a message on Wednesday. “Many countries were exchanging equipment. We sent ventilators. Testers came from America.”
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Weissert reported from Washington and Colvin from New York. Mark Scolforo in Scranton contributed to this report.