If Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden wins the November 3 United States elections, his running mate Kamala Harris will takeover as president in a month's time, President Donald Trump said on Thursday in a blistering attack on his poll rivals.
Vice President Mike Pence, 61, and Harris, 55, came face-to-face in the vice presidential debate on Wednesday, which saw sparring over Trump's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, jobs, China, racial tensions and climate change. Trump and Biden have separately lauded their deputies.
"I thought that wasn't even a contest last night. She was terrible. I don't think you could get worse. And totally unlikable. She's a Communist. She's left of (Senator) Bernie (Sanders). She's rated left of Bernie by everybody. She's a Communist," Trump told Fox News in an interview on Thursday.
"We're going to have a Communist. Look, I sit next to Joe and I looked at Joe. Joe's not lasting two months as president. That's my opinion. He's not going to be lasting two months," Trump said, in his first interview after the vice presidential debate.
The interview, also the first after returning from a military hospital where he was treated for COVID-19, was over phone and lasted nearly an hour.
"She is a Communist. She's not a socialist. She's well beyond a socialist. Take a look at her views. She wants to open up the borders to allow killers and murderers and rapists to pour into our country," Trump said in his sharpest attack against Harris.
Later in a tweet, Trump said if a Republican lied like Biden and Harris do, the "Lame stream media would be calling them out at a level never recorded before."
"For one year they called for no fracking and big tax increases. Now they each say opposite. Fake news is working overtime!" Trump tweeted.
Addressing a rally in Nevada, a day after the debate, Pence described it as a match-up of two different visions.
"Let me be clear, last night's vice presidential debate was not just a debate between two candidates, I think it was a debate between two visions," he said.
"Joe Biden and Kamala Harris want higher taxes, open borders, they want to defund the police, and if you couldn't work it out last night they want to pack the Supreme Court," he claimed.
"A lot of talk this morning on TV about who won the debate. I think when you compare the Biden-Harris agenda with what Donald Trump has done and will continue to do for the country... Donald Trump won the debate hands down," Pence said.
Meanwhile, Biden has described President Donald Trumps' remarks about Kamala Harris as "despicable" and "beneath the office of the presidency".
It's despicable, so beneath the office of the presidency and the American people are sick and tired of it. They know who this man is, it's got to stop," Biden told reporters in the battle ground State of Arizona with Harris by his side.
"This (Harris) is a person who is ready on day one to be president of the United States of America. This is a person who has more integrity in her little finger than most people have in their whole body... He (Trump) has great difficulty dealing with strong women," the Democratic presidential candidate said.
"You did a great job," he told Harris.
Responding to a query, Biden said there is no place for hate in America.
"Both of us have been talking about this for some time, about how white supremacists and these militias are a genuine threat," he said.
"I have got to compliment the FBI and the police agencies for what they did and how they stepped up. But look, the words of a president matter whether they can cause a nation to have a market rise or fall, go to war, bring peace. But they can also breathe oxygen into those who are filled with hate and danger and I just think it's got to stop," Biden added.
