Vice President Kamala Harris went after former President Donald Trump for declining an interview with CBS News’s 60 Minutes and not accepting her proposed October debate, saying “his staff” is holding him back.
Harris, speaking on Roland Martin’s online show Monday, questioned Trump’s fitness for office and said the former president’s staff had stopped him from doing various things, such as the 60 Minutes interview, in recent weeks.
NEW: VP Harris to @rolandsmartin this AM on Trump:
“His staff won’t let him do a 60 Minutes interview…he will not debate me again…he won’t put out his medical records…Why is his staff doing that? And it may be because they think he’s just not ready. And unfit & unstable.” pic.twitter.com/Sj9qF5qLXF
— Sharon Yang (@sharonjqyang) October 14, 2024
“His staff won’t let him do a 60 Minutes interview. Every president for the last half-century has done one — anyone who’s running for president. Everyone has done it except Donald Trump. He will not debate me again. I put out my medical records. He won’t put out his medical records,” Harris said.
“And you have to ask why is his staff doing that? And it may be because they think he’s just not ready, and unfit and unstable and should not have that level of transparency with the American people,” she added.
Trump had declined a sit-down with 60 Minutes over the program’s interview with him ahead of the 2020 election when Lesley Stahl pushed back on Trump mentioning the Hunter Biden laptop and said the laptop’s authenticity could not be verified. Since 2020, multiple news outlets, including the Washington Examiner and CBS News, have verified the laptop’s authenticity. CBS News said Trump had agreed to the interview but then backed out over concerns with the network’s fact-checking.
The former president has resisted Harris’s calls for another debate on CNN in October, following the September ABC debate. Trump proposed two other debates with Harris, on Fox News and NBC, in September, but Harris declined.
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Harris released a memo detailing her medical records Saturday, challenging Trump to do the same. Trump’s campaign responded by pointing to two memos related to the former president’s health released during the current campaign, including one following the first assassination attempt on Trump in July.
Harris’s claim that Trump’s staff is holding him back while hinting at his age is similar to attacks the former president had levied against President Joe Biden before he dropped out of the race. The president’s decision to drop his presidential bid in July came after concerns over his age and mental acuity reached a fever pitch following his June debate performance against Trump.