Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign went on the offensive following former President Donald Trump’s town hall Monday night, which turned into a music listening party after two attendees required medical attention.
Trump stopped the brief question-and-answer session with Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem after the attendees required medical attention. He then decided to shift gears.
“Let's not do any more questions, let’s just listen to music,” Trump said, adding: “Who the hell wants to hear questions?”
Then for almost 40 minutes, Trump stood on stage swaying and dancing to an eclectic playlist: “Time to Say Goodbye” featuring Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman, Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U,” Rufus Wainwright’s cover of Leonard Cohn’s “Hallelujah,” and, of course, “YMCA” by The Village People, a staple of Trump’s rallies.
A spokesperson for Trump’s campaign described the event as a “Total lovefest.”
“Everyone was so excited they were fainting so @realDonaldTrump turned to music,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung wrote on social media. “Nobody wanted to leave and wanted to hear more songs from the famous DJT Spotify playlist!”
The Harris campaign shared on social media an edited clip of Trump on stage Monday night, charging that the Republican former president “appears lost, confused, and frozen on stage.” Harris shared the post from her own account, writing: “Hope he’s okay.”
Trump adviser Dan Scavino fired back at Harris on social media, accusing the vice president of taking the events of the night out of context: “DESPERATE times call for desperate measures.”
But the hits didn’t stop coming from the Harris camp, which continued to call on Trump to release his medical records. Harris campaign spokesperson Ian Sams, formerly from the White House counsel’s office, lambasted Trump for encouraging his supporters to vote on Jan. 5 — two months after Election Day.
“I’ll tell you, if everything works out and everybody gets out on Jan. 5, or before,” Trump said on Monday night. “You know, it used to be – you’d have a date. Today, you can vote two months before, probably three months after. They don’t know what the hell they’re doing. But we’re gonna straighten it all out. We’re gonna straighten that out, too. We’re gonna straighten out our election process out, too.”
“Trump is confused about the date of the election, as he faces scrutiny for not disclosing his medical records,” Sams wrote on social media.
Those attacks continued on Tuesday morning after CNBC host Joe Kernen announced that Trump canceled a scheduled interview for this week.
Kernen, who was on a list of Trump’s “close contacts” shown at his hush money trial earlier this year, said on the air Tuesday that “Trump canceled, and he was going to come on.” The Harris campaign shared a clip of Kernen’s announcement on social media.
A Trump campaign official told Spectrum News that the interview was canceled due to a scheduling conflict. Trump was scheduled Tuesday to take part in an interview co-hosted by Bloomberg News and The Economic Club of Chicago, as well as a Fox News town hall focused on women's issues set to air Wednesday.
“WOW. Donald Trump pulls out of another scheduled mainstream interview. First he canceled on 60 Minutes. He's refusing to debate. He froze up and played music for 40 minutes last night on stage,” Harris spokesperson Ammar Moussa wrote on social media. “What is going on?”
Harris deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty on social media sarcastically remarked that Trump is “closing strong!” by canceling the interview and asked: “is he….okay?"
Trump, for his part, questioned Harris' health in a series of overnight posts on his social media platform, claiming he's "far healthier" than the vice president and any of his predecessors in both political parties.
"I have just seen Kamala’s Report, and it is not good," Trump wrote in one post. "According to her Doctor’s Report, she suffers from 'urticaria,' defined as 'a rash of round, red welts on the skin that itch intensely, sometimes with dangerous swelling.' She also has 'allergic rhinitis and allergic conjunctivitis,' a very messy and dangerous situation. These are deeply serious conditions that clearly impact her functioning. Maybe that is why she can’t answer even the simplest of questions asked by 60 Minutes, and others."
Urticaria is better known as hives, and allergic rhinitis is a condition that causes runny nose, congestion and sneezing. Her doctor said she is being treated for both with over-the-counter antihistamines and allergen immunotherapy, but is otherwise in excellent health.
Both candidates were invited to the "60 Minutes" interview. Harris took part in the interview, which aired last week, while Trump turned it down and later accused the newsmagazine of helping Harris and called for CBS to lose its broadcast license.
Spectrum News' Joseph Konig contributed to this report.