Trump Criticizes Harris in Policy Speech

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump lobbed a series of personal and policy-based attacks at Democratic rival Kamala Harris in a speech, hoping to recover from a difficult stretch during which his lead in opinion polls has evaporated.

The former President told supporters in Asheville, North Carolina, he would open up federal lands to drilling and ease the permitting process for pipelines among other measures designed to bring down consumers prices should he win the Nov. 5 presidential election.

He resumed attacks on Vice President Harris' intellect that many allies and donors had hoped he would ditch, denigrating her laugh saying: "That's the laugh of a person with some big problems."

He accused Harris of supporting a ban on fracking and said her position would prove a major liability in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania, where fracking is common.

Trump also criticized the current administration's handling of inflation, using a packet of Tic-Tacs as a prop to illustrate rising prices, and promised to slash energy and electricity costs by half under his leadership.

However U.S. President Joe Biden, asked about falling inflation rates, said his policies to lower costs were effective.

"I told you we're going to have a soft landing, we are going to have a soft landing. My policies are working. Start writing that way, okay?," Biden said, during a conference with digital content creators at the White House.

A report released showed inflation rates in July had dropped to below 3% for the first time in three years, opening the door wider for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates next month.

The report from the Labor Department marked the third straight month of tame consumer price readings and added to a mild rise in producer prices last month suggesting that inflation was firmly back on a downward trend.