ERIE, Pa. — Republicans on Sunday sought to distance themselves from former President Donald Trump’s latest insults of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris during a rambling weekend rally in Wisconsin in which he called her “mentally disabled.”

Trump escalated his personal attacks Saturday on the vice president during a self-described “dark speech” on immigration following Harris’ trip to the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Joe Biden became mentally impaired,” Trump said. “Kamala was born that way. She was born that way. And if you think about it, only a mentally disabled person could have allowed this to happen to our country. Anybody would know this.”

Trump has already falsely claimed Harris “turned Black” and regularly insults her as “stupid,” “weak,” “dumb as a rock” and “lazy.”

With just over a month left before the election, his allies pushed him publicly and privately to talk instead about the economy, immigration and other issues.

“I just think the better course to take is to prosecute the case that her policies are destroying the country,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on CNN’s “State of the Union” when asked about Trump’s comments. “They’re crazy liberal.”

When asked whether he approved of the remarks, Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., sidestepped the issue during an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”

When pressed, he said: “I think we should stick to the issues. The issues are, Donald Trump fixed it once. They broke it. He’s going to fix it again.”

Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, running for the Senate as a moderate Republican, brought up Trump’s false claims that Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, had previously downplayed her Black heritage. Harris attended Howard University, a historically Black college, and has identified as both Black and South Asian throughout her political career.

“I’ve already called him out when he had the one interview where he was questioning her racial identity, and now he’s questioning her mental competence,” Hogan told CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “And I think that’s insulting not only to the vice president but to people who actually do have mental disabilities.”

Trump held a rally Sunday in Erie, Pennsylvania, and some of the supporters said he often makes offensive remarks. Still, they support his proposals to restrict immigration and said he would have a better handle on the economy.

“He says what’s on his mind, and again, sometimes how he says it isn’t appropriate,” said Jeffrey Balogh, 56, who attended the rally with two friends. “But he did the job.”

Trump repeated the “mentally impaired” insult at the Erie rally — also saying she should be “impeached and prosecuted.”

His suggestions that political enemies be prosecuted are particularly notable for their departure from norms in the U.S. in which the judicial system is supposed to be protected from political influence. In recent weeks, he has threatened prosecutions of Google for allegedly giving priority to “good stories” about Harris, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and anyone he deems to be “involved in unscrupulous behavior” related to the coming election.

Trump has long threatened legal action against his rivals, including President Joe Biden and his 2016 rival, Hillary Clinton.

This month he threatened to jail those “involved in unscrupulous behavior” this election, including election workers, lawyers, political operatives, donors and voters, yet again sowing doubt about the integrity of the election, even though fraud is rare.

If elected, Harris would be the first woman, Black woman and person of South Asian descent to be president.

Trump’s Wisconsin speech Saturday in Prairie du Chien, a town of 5,000 people along the Mississippi River, was meant to serve as a response to Harris’ border visit in Douglas, Arizona, where she promised to crack down on asylum and called for tougher punishments against those who cross the border illegally.

The polls show the candidates locked in a tight race.

In a recent New York Times/Siena College poll, 69% of likely voters described Harris as intelligent, including 71% of independent voters. Fewer (60%) said that of Trump.

The New York Times contributed.