Donald Trump’s Attack on ‘Crazy’ Kamala Harris Sparks Anger

Former President Donald Trump‘s comments calling Vice President Kamala Harris “crazy” have sparked anger on social media.

Trump made the remarks at a campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday—his first since he survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The July 13 shooting left him with a bloodied ear, killed one attendee and seriously injured two others. The gunman was shot dead by Secret Service agents—investigators are still working to determine a motive for the attack.

The rally—Trump’s first since formally accepting the GOP nomination earlier this week and with his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, by his side—came as President Joe Biden, who is self-isolating with COVID-19, is facing mounting pressure to quit the presidential race.

Dozens of Democratic lawmakers have called on the president to step aside and be replaced at the top of the Democratic ticket after a poor debate performance in June magnified concerns about his age and ability to beat Trump in November. Biden has insisted he is not dropping out of the race.

At Saturday’s rally, Trump polled the crowd on who they would like to see as his opponent in November. There were cheers for Biden and loud boos when he asked about Harris, The Associated Press reported.

At one point, Trump made a mocking reference to videos of Harris laughing that have gone viral online and branded her “crazy” and “nuts.”

“I call her laughing Kamala,” he said. “Have you watched her laugh? She is crazy. You know, you can tell a lot by a laugh. No, she’s crazy. She’s nuts. She’s not as crazy as Nancy Pelosi.”

The Trump and Biden campaigns have been contacted for comment.

Trump’s remarks sparked a backlash, with actor Jon Cryer writing on X, formerly Twitter, that Trump and his supporters “are deeply frightened of a Black woman who is capable of experiencing joy.”

Others called out Trump for returning to attacking his political rivals despite his calls for national unity after the assassination attempt. When he accepted the GOP nomination at the Republican National Convention on Thursday, Trump urged unity and said he was “running to be president for all of America, not half of America.”

“The new tone … unity … a gentler kinder Donald Trump,” Democratic strategist Adam Parkhomenko wrote on X, alongside the clip of Trump’s remarks about Harris.

The Republicans Against Trump account wrote: “They said: ‘Trump is a changed man.’ ‘Trump pivot to Unity’ ‘He’ll change his tone.'”

Another person wrote that Trump was “mocking” and “smearing” Harris. “He hasn’t changed from the attack on him,” they wrote. “He’s as vile, repugnant and abhorrent as he’s always been.”

George Conway, a vocal Trump critic who is married to a former adviser of the Republican, wrote that the political action committee he set up, called the Anti-Psychopath PAC, needs to “do ad on psychological projection.”