Donald Trump has demanded compensation for funds spent campaigning against Joe Biden after the US president pulled out of the race for the White House.
Republicans should be “reimbursed for fraud”, Trump said, as the vice-president Kamala Harris emerged as the frontrunner to be the Democrat candidate.
Mr Biden withdrew on Sunday after weeks of pressure on him to quit following last month’s disastrous televised debate against Trump, which raised questions over his mental acuity.
US conservatives are now scrabbling to redraw their strategy for November’s presidential election after Mr Biden and some senior Democrats backed Ms Harris.
“So we are forced to spend time and money fighting Crooked Joe Biden, he polls badly after a terrible debate and quits the race,” Trump wrote on social media.
“Now we have to start all over again. Shouldn’t the Republican Party be reimbursed for fraud in that everybody around Joe, including his doctors and the Fake News Media, knew he was not capable of running for, or being, president?”
The Trump campaign believed that Mr Biden was the easiest candidate for them to beat - ALEX WROBLEWSKI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
The Republican candidate said he would no longer take part in a TV debate scheduled for September.
On Sunday night, Trump told CBS News that Ms Harris “could be far less competent” than Mr Biden, “which is hard to believe”, and that “the policies, whether it’s him or her, wouldn’t be any different”.
He took aim at her record on securing the country’s southern border against illegal immigration. “She was in charge of the border. She was the border tsar, she was the worst ever. The worst ever. We had the worst border ever so that wouldn’t matter,” he said.
Trump, whose campaign was boosted by the failed assassination attempt against him, had urged Mr Biden to stay in the race.
Republicans would have preferred to face the beleaguered Mr Biden, who is 81, and had recently pulled their punches to keep the weaker candidate in condition.
Their campaign has focused on the gaffe-prone president’s age and mental fitness for the job, but now Trump is the older candidate and could face the same questions.
Conservative political action committees (PACs) have spent millions of dollars on advertising levelled at Mr Biden, which will now go to waste.
Trump-allied PACs are already preparing attack ads targeting Ms Harris, a 59-year-old black woman who could now become the first female president.
They plan to paint her as a puppet master in the Biden administration in the ads, which include a $5 million TV spot in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona.
She is vocal on abortion rights, which Trump views as a liability at the ballot box after Republicans underperformed in the 2022 midterms.
Those elections were held after the conservative-controlled Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade, which guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion.
Ms Harris has said she wants to “earn and win” the nomination but has not yet been endorsed by influential Democrats such as Barack Obama, the former president, or Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House.
She has not yet been confirmed as the candidate or named a vice-presidential pick, which will further complicate Republican wargaming for the campaign.
“I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party – and unite our nation – to defeat Donald Trump,” Ms Harris said shortly after Mr Biden’s dramatic exit.
Grifter is going to grift, I guess?
Republicans should be “reimbursed for fraud”, Trump said, as the vice-president Kamala Harris emerged as the frontrunner to be the Democrat candidate.
Mr Biden withdrew on Sunday after weeks of pressure on him to quit following last month’s disastrous televised debate against Trump, which raised questions over his mental acuity.
US conservatives are now scrabbling to redraw their strategy for November’s presidential election after Mr Biden and some senior Democrats backed Ms Harris.
“So we are forced to spend time and money fighting Crooked Joe Biden, he polls badly after a terrible debate and quits the race,” Trump wrote on social media.
“Now we have to start all over again. Shouldn’t the Republican Party be reimbursed for fraud in that everybody around Joe, including his doctors and the Fake News Media, knew he was not capable of running for, or being, president?”
The Trump campaign believed that Mr Biden was the easiest candidate for them to beat - ALEX WROBLEWSKI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
The Republican candidate said he would no longer take part in a TV debate scheduled for September.
On Sunday night, Trump told CBS News that Ms Harris “could be far less competent” than Mr Biden, “which is hard to believe”, and that “the policies, whether it’s him or her, wouldn’t be any different”.
He took aim at her record on securing the country’s southern border against illegal immigration. “She was in charge of the border. She was the border tsar, she was the worst ever. The worst ever. We had the worst border ever so that wouldn’t matter,” he said.
Trump, whose campaign was boosted by the failed assassination attempt against him, had urged Mr Biden to stay in the race.
Republicans would have preferred to face the beleaguered Mr Biden, who is 81, and had recently pulled their punches to keep the weaker candidate in condition.
Their campaign has focused on the gaffe-prone president’s age and mental fitness for the job, but now Trump is the older candidate and could face the same questions.
Conservative political action committees (PACs) have spent millions of dollars on advertising levelled at Mr Biden, which will now go to waste.
Trump-allied PACs are already preparing attack ads targeting Ms Harris, a 59-year-old black woman who could now become the first female president.
They plan to paint her as a puppet master in the Biden administration in the ads, which include a $5 million TV spot in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona.
Presidential battle lines
Ms Harris’ campaign has already contrasted her past work as a prosecutor unfavourably with Trump’s recent criminal convictions for covering up hush money payments to the porn star Stormy Daniels.She is vocal on abortion rights, which Trump views as a liability at the ballot box after Republicans underperformed in the 2022 midterms.
Those elections were held after the conservative-controlled Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade, which guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion.
Ms Harris has said she wants to “earn and win” the nomination but has not yet been endorsed by influential Democrats such as Barack Obama, the former president, or Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House.
She has not yet been confirmed as the candidate or named a vice-presidential pick, which will further complicate Republican wargaming for the campaign.
“I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party – and unite our nation – to defeat Donald Trump,” Ms Harris said shortly after Mr Biden’s dramatic exit.
Grifter is going to grift, I guess?
