Trump highlights higher grocery prices at 2nd news conference in a week

(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump is holding a news conference Thursday afternoon at his Bedminster golf club — his second in a week — as the campaign continues to pressure Vice President Kamala Harris to do interviews and answer reporter questions.

Trump began by highlighting inflation and hitting Harris on the cost of grocery prices as he stood between two tables full of food store items such as cereal, deli meat, milk, eggs, baby formula and bread with a sign saying, “Price Increases since Kamala Harris took office.”

“Harris has just declared that tackling inflation will be a Day 1 priority for her. It’s going to be Day 1. But Day 1, really, for Kamala was three and a half years ago. Where has she been?” Trump said.

He ticked off a long list of what he said were higher costs for a variety of common grocery items but offered no sourcing, other than claiming they came from “the government.”

Inflation peaked at 9.1% during the Biden-Harris administration but since cooled to 2.9% in July compared to a year ago — the lowest inflation reading since March 2021.

He eventually started veered off into talking about immigration, energy and other favorite topics, including attacks on Harris, speaking for more than 30 minutes without taking any questions.

Thursday’s news conference follows one that Trump held at his Mar-a-Lago estate last Thursday, fielding questions for more than an hour on a range of topics including his recent attacks on Harris, immigration and reproductive rights.

During the long and, at times, rambling exchange with reporters, Trump often pushed false claims on several topics, including the outcome of the 2020 election and size of the crowd at his Jan. 6, 2021, rally before the attacks on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.

“She refuses to do any interviews or press conferences, almost 30 days now, she has not done an interview,” Trump said of Harris on Wednesday in North Carolina. “You know why she hasn’t done an interview? Because she’s not smart. She’s not intelligent,” he said.

His campaign says she’s trying to “duck and hide” from the news media.

Trump’s recent news conferences appear to be part of the campaign’s attempt to draw a contrast between the two candidates.

“She hasn’t done an interview — she can’t do an interview,” Trump claimed during his Mar-a-Lago press conference last week.

He added that he “look[s] forward to the debates” as a way to “set the record straight.”

The Harris campaign has been using Trump’s news conferences to highlight flubs he has made and criticize policies he advocates.

“Trump did the only thing he knows how to do — he went out and lied, made up stories, mixed up dates, attacked the media, and, overall, reminded Americans that he is a deeply unwell man,” the Harris campaign said in a statement reacting to Trump’s news conference.

During her time out on the campaign trail since announcing her White House bid, Harris has held a few exchanges with reporters aboard Air Force Two and answered a few shouted questions; however, her campaign says she will participate in a sit-down interview before the end of the month.

“We will commit to directly engage with the voters that are actually gonna decide this election and that is gonna be complete with rallies, with sit-down interviews, with press conferences, with all the digital assets we have at our disposal,” Michael Tyler, communications director for the Harris-Walz campaign, said on CNN Wednesday when pressed multiple times to commit to press conferences and media interviews.

Though she hasn’t made herself as available to the media as the former president, Harris did spend the week with her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, crisscrossing the country visiting battleground states.

Trump just visited the solidly conservative state of Montana to stump for GOP Senate candidate Tim Sheehy last week, and is holding a rally in battleground Pennsylvania over the weekend.