Kamala Harris calls Donald Trump an “unchecked power” and personally wants a loyal military after allegations surface that Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for Hitler He was accused of being a “fascist.”
On Wednesday, the vice president gave a surprise speech from his home in Washington, D.C., in which Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly, lamented that Trump has no generals who have sworn the same loyalty to him. This was in response to a report that he recalled that he had done so. When a military commander served Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany.
“Donald Trump has become increasingly volatile and unstable, and in a second term, someone like John Kerry will not be a guardrail for his inclinations and actions. The people who tried to stop him from acting on his impulses are no longer there, and there is no longer any power to restrain him,” Harris said.
Harris said Kelly’s comments show President Trump “doesn’t want a military that is loyal to the Constitution of the United States.”
“Personally, he wants service members who are loyal to him and who will follow orders, even if he tells them to break the law or abandon their oath to the U.S. Constitution,” she said.
She added that the question presents a tough choice for U.S. voters heading to the polls in the Nov. 5 presidential election. “We know what Donald Trump wants. He wants unlimited power. In 13 days, the question will be: ‘What do the American people want? ” That means.
Harris’ speech comes after more than a week in which Trump has branded his political opponents the “enemy within” and called for the military to be sent in against those who would disrupt the election. It was done after.
Kelly, who served as White House chief of staff for 18 months during the Trump administration, said in a recorded conversation with The New York Times that his former boss repeatedly praised Hitler, even when contradicted. He said he fits the dictionary definition of fascist. .
“He made the comment multiple times, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too,'” Kelly said, adding that Trump would rule as a dictator if re-elected.
Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general, made similar remarks in an interview with The Atlantic.
“It is deeply disturbing that Donald Trump calls Adolf Hitler responsible for the deaths of six million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Americans,” Harris said, referring to various reports. , it’s extremely dangerous.” This is a window into who Donald Trump really is from the people who know him best. ”
Furthermore, she added: “It is clear from John Kerry’s words that Donald Trump is someone who, to quote me, ‘definitely fits the general definition of a fascist’ and, in fact, he will be a dictator from day one. and vowed to use the power of the state as a personal militia to carry out his personal and political vendettas.
It was the second time in a week that Harris has effectively labeled a Republican candidate a fascist. Last week, a Detroit radio interviewer asked if President Trump’s vision constituted fascism, and although she didn’t say the word directly, she answered in the affirmative.
Trump’s press secretary denied Kelly’s claim that Trump made the remarks, calling them “completely false.”
Harris’ comments Wednesday were the clearest sign that she has changed tactics from the previous approach she initially adopted after becoming the party’s nominee. Ms. Harris and her surrogates sought to belittle and belittle Mr. Trump. One example was mocking Trump’s obsession with crowd size. At his gathering.
Theories abound about what Harris could do to wean voters away from Trump’s appeal, which centered on promises to lower prices and expel immigrants from the country, which rose during Joe Biden’s presidency.
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Frank Luntz, a prominent Republican pollster, said in an interview with CNN earlier today that the very message Harris launched this afternoon was ineffective.
“What’s interesting is that when Harris focused on why she should be elected president, that’s when the numbers went up,” Luntz said.
“And the moment she turned anti-Trump and focused on him and said, don’t vote for me, please vote against him, everything froze.”
Mr. Kelly’s characterization of Mr. Trump as a fascist echoes that of retired former Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley. In a recently published book, journalist Bob Woodward calls Milley, who said Trump should be executed, a “total fascist” and “a fascist to the core.” It is quoted as follows.
Later Wednesday, Harris told NBC News that she was preparing for the possibility that Donald Trump would declare victory before the election is complete, and was reported as saying: We have the resources and expertise and are focused on it. ”
Also at the White House’s daily press briefing, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre acknowledged that Biden agrees with those who say Trump is a fascist.
“I mean, yes,” Jean-Pierre said when asked by a reporter in the White House briefing room. She also insisted that Trump himself has made no secret of how he wants to govern, saying: “The former president said from day one that he would be a dictator. We cannot ignore that…We cannot ignore or forget what happened on January 6, 2021.”
Cecilia Nowell contributed reporting
