ASHEVILLE, North Carolina, Aug 15 - #Republicans presidential candidate #donald Trump lobbed a series of personal and policy-based attacks at his Democratic rival Kamala Harris in a speech on Wednesday, hoping to recover from a difficult stretch during which his lead in opinion polls has all but evaporated.
Some allies, donors and advisers have expressed concern at Trump's attacks on the U.S. vice president's intellect and suggested that he instead focus on what they argue are the failed policies Harris has promoted while in office.
Speaking to supporters in Asheville, North Carolina, Trump steered clear of broadsides challenging Harris' racial identity and spoke about policy in more detail than he has at other recent events. But he continued to throw personal insults at her, at one point calling her "stupid" and denigrating her laugh as a cackle, saying: "That's the laugh of a person with some big problems."
Since emerging as the Democratic Party's candidate after President Joe Biden dropped his own reelection bid last month, Harris has dramatically changed the race. Polls have consistently shown her closing the gap on Trump and some now have her ahead in the race for the Nov. 5 election.
The surge has rattled Trump's campaign, and he has responded with insults. He has implied that Harris, whose mother was born in India and whose father was born in Jamaica, has only recently leaned into her Black identity. Some Republicans have smeared her with racist and sexist attacks.
Some Trump allies say the approach has hurt his campaign.
"Personally it makes no difference to me what Kamala wants to identify as," said Bill Bean, a major Republican donor who hosted Trump's vice presidential pick, JD Vance, at an Indiana fundraiser in late July.
Bean said he had talked with Vance and Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley about the need to attack Harris on her policy record, not her identity
Trump spent the latter part of his North Carolina speech doing just that: attacking her policies while spelling out his own.
He said he would open up federal lands to drilling and ease the permitting process for pipelines among other measures designed to bring down consumer prices should he defeat Harris.
