Donald Trump told reporters on Thursday that he has held relatively few public campaign events in recent weeks because he is “leading by a lot,” wants to wait Democratic National Convention ends August 22 and does lots of radio and TV interviews.

The Republican presidential candidate gave the explanation during a press conference he hosted at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

So far this month, Trump has only held one public meeting, in Atlanta on August 3although he is scheduled to attend another on Friday night in Bozeman, Montana, held to support a Republican Senate candidate.

However, the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota’s governor Tim Waltzhas held meetings in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan this week and will hold more distant meetings on Friday in Arizona and Saturday in Nevada.

According to a CNBC News analysis, Trump held 27 campaign rallies in August 2016, when he first ran for president, covering 15 states.

Speaking to Trump during Thursday’s press conference, a journalist said: “You haven’t had a public campaign event in almost a week now, tomorrow you’ll be in Montana which is not a swing state, some of your allies have expressed concern that you is not taking this race very seriously…”

At this point, Trump interrupted, commenting: “What a stupid question.” But the journalist continued: “Where there is enthusiasm on the other side, why haven’t you campaigned this week?”

Trump responded: “Because I’m leading by a lot and because I’m running their convention and I’m campaigning a lot, I’m doing tremendous amounts of tape here — we’ve got advertising on a level that I don’t think anybody’s ever done before.

“Plus in some cases – I see a lot of you in the room where I’m talking to you on the phones, I’m talking to the radio, I’m talking to the TV. TV is coming here. Excuse me, what are we doing right now?”

Referring to Harris, Trump continued: “She doesn’t do a press conference. You know why? Because she can’t do a press conference. She doesn’t know how to do a press conference, she’s not smart enough to do a news conference, and I’m sorry, we need smart people to lead this country because our country has never been in this danger before, both economically and from a perspective.”

Trump later added that he is “going to certain places to help certain senators get elected” and claimed he would do this in states such as Wyoming and Montana, which are widely considered Republican for the presidential election.

Newsweek Harris and Trump campaign representatives were reached for comment by email outside regular business hours on Friday.

On July 13, Trump narrowly escaped assassination when a gunman opened fire on a rally he was hosting near Butler, Pennsylvania. The former president was slightly injured in the ear and a participant in the rally was killed, as was the attacker by return fire from the police.

More than a dozen surveys conducted since Harris became the of the Democrats presumptive presidential candidate after President Biden dropped out of the race has put her ahead of Trump. This week, Harris became it favorite to win the 2024 presidential race with Betfair and Paddypower, two leading bookmakers.