'Enraged' Trump insists Harris DNC speech won't top 'tremendous' RNC ratings

The 2024 Democratic National Convention got underway in Chicago on Monday, August 19 with speeches by President Joe Biden, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), and others. A wide range of Democrats were featured, sending out a message that centrist and progressive members of the party are united in support of presidential nominee Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

This convention comes only a month after Republicans held their 2024 convention in Milwaukee, where Donald Trump formally accepted the GOP's presidential nomination for the third time in a row. Trump has been bragging about that event's "tremendous" ratings, and according to Rolling Stone reporters Asawin Suebsaeng and Andrew Perez, he has been insisting that the Democratic event cannot possibly enjoy higher ratings.

"Trump's private queries about the convention ratings come at a time when polls show Harris hacking away at the significant leads Trump had built over Biden nationally and in the most crucial battleground states — and even pulling ahead," the journalists explain. "This has enraged the former president lately, as have the sizes of the rally audiences that Harris and her running mate Tim Walz have attracted."

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Thursday, August 22 will be the last day of the Democratic event, with Harris making her acceptance speech.

"If Thursday night's broadcast hauls in enough viewers," Suebsaeng and Perez note, "it would give Democratic operatives yet another tool to try to mess with Trump's head, a recurring theme in Harris-Walz messaging salvos."

Trump, the reporters stress, has long been obsessed with ratings — even before his 2016 campaign.

"In the years leading up to his political ascent in 2015," Suebsaeng and Perez point out, "the then-future president would regularly instruct his staff to pull data or pester TV hosts and correspondents about what the ratings were for his recent appearances."

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Read Rolling Stone's full report at this link (subscription required).