Trump says Kamala Harris can't be the first woman to be president because she 'comes in through the back door'

• President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, couldn't become the first woman to be president.
• "This is not what people want. And she comes in through the back door — this would not be what people want, especially because it's her," Trump said during a campaign rally in Wisconsin.
• Trump has dug into Joe Biden's running mate ever since she became the first Black woman to be on a major party's presidential ticket.

President Donald Trump on Thursday continued his line of attack against Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, saying that "if a woman is going to become the first president of the United States, it can't be her."

"That would rip our country apart," Trump told his supporters during a campaign rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin. "This is not what people want. And she comes in through the back door — this would not be what people want, especially because it's her."

The president drew attention to Harris' time on the campaign trail and her feuding with Biden, now the Democratic presidential nominee, on the debate stage.

"I said brilliantly, 'He'll never pick her, because she was too terrible to him,'" Trump said, adding, "But she picked him, and hopefully that's going to be history, it's not going to matter.

"And that is no way for a woman to become the first president, that's for sure," he said.

Since Biden announced Harris as his running mate last month, Trump and his allies have coalesced to deride the California senator, casting her as a "radical socialist" and calling her "nasty," "disrespectful," and "not competent."

Harris is the first woman of color on a major party's presidential ticket. Trump has floated false birther conspiracy theories questioning whether she's eligible to serve as vice president as the child of immigrants, born to a Jamaican father and an Indian mother. In reality, Harris meets all the qualifications to be a vice president: She is a US-born citizen over the age of 35. Trump has pushed similarly baseless accusations against President Barack Obama.

Harris is set to face off with Vice President Mike Pence on October 7 in their only debate. The event at the University of Utah will be moderated by Susan Page, USA Today's Washington bureau chief.

"I don't want to put pressure on him, but wait till you see what Mike Pence does to her in the debate," Trump said on Thursday.