Trump surprises booing supporters by praising Harris’s ‘very nice call’ at town hall – twice

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

To a booing crowd in Flint, Michigan on Tuesday night, former President Donald Trump said he had a “very nice” call with Vice President Kamala Harris when she checked in on him after the second failed assassination attempt against him during this campaign.

“I have to say that President Biden called me yesterday, [it] was ... a very nice conversation. I appreciated that he called about, you know what happened the other day,” Trump began.

“A little while ago, I got a very nice call from Kamala. It was very nice ... and we appreciate that, but we have to take back our country. We have to win. We’re going to win, and we’re going to make America great again,” he added.

As he spoke, sections of the crowd at the town hall booed at the mention of Harris’s name.

Despite that, Trump mentioned the call again later in the town hall, insisting that the Vice President “couldn’t have been nicer.”

It was a far cry from his normal rhetoric about his rival for the White House, who he has dubbed a “communist,” a “Marxist,” and a “fascist,” and who he has said will ruin the United States if she is elected president on November 5. Trump – and his running mate, JD Vance – have been widely criticized for their rhetoric during the campaign, even as they have accused their Democratic opponents of going over the top in their criticism.

The moderator of the town hall, former Trump White House press secretary and Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders said to cheers, “I think it's safe to say that this crowd will all be voting for you.”

A White House official described the call as “cordial and brief” and that Harris told the former president and Republican nominee that she “is grateful he is safe,” according to The Hill.

“I checked on to see if he was okay,” Harris told the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) on Tuesday. “And, I told him what I have said publicly – there’s no place for political violence in our country. I am in this election and this race for many reasons, including to fight for our democracy, and in a democracy, there is no place for political violence.”

The two presidential candidates met for the first time on the debate stage in Philadelphia on Tuesday last week and again the following morning for the event commemorating the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001, where Trump appeared to tell Harris “Good job.”

Biden and Trump spoke on Monday, with the former president saying they discussed the Secret Service.

Trump blamed both Harris and Biden earlier on Monday for the most recent assassination attempt, claiming that their rhetoric has created the climate for political violence. Biden has stated that the Secret Service needs more resources and has called on Congress to step in.

The assassination attempt took place on Sunday when Trump was playing golf in West Palm Beach. Agents noticed the barrel of a rifle sticking through the fence of the course and the Secret Service opened fire, prompting the suspect to flee.

But he was quickly apprehended after a witness took a photo of the license plate on his SUV.

The suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was charged on Monday with two firearm violations.