Kamala Harris has denounced Donald Trump as a “fascist”, an army who wants “absolute power” and an army personally loyal to her, after allegations emerged about the former president's repeated rants about Hitler.
On Wednesday, the vice president gave a surprise speech from Washington, DC, to John Kelly, Trump's former chief of staff, who recalled that Trump lamented not having generals who swore allegiance to him like military commanders served Hitler in Nazi Germany.
“Donald Trump is increasingly unhinged and unstable, and in a second term, people like John Kelly will not be protected from his views and actions. Those who once tried to stop him from following his worst impulses are no longer there, no longer controlling him,” Harris said.
Harris said Kelly's comments showed that Trump “does not want a military that is loyal to the Constitution of the United States.”
“You want a military that will be personally loyal to you and obey your orders, even if you tell them to break the law or renounce their oath to the United States Constitution,” he said.
Framing the issue as a difficult choice for American voters heading into the November 5 presidential election, he added: “We know what Donald Trump wants. He wants power without control. The question in 13 days will be what the American people want.
Harris' speech came after more than a week of Trump labeling his political opponents “enemies within” and calling on the military to apprehend those causing “disruption” in the election.
In recorded conversations with The New York Times, Kelly, who was White House chief of staff for 18 months during Trump's presidency, repeatedly praised his former boss Hitler, and even contradicted him, fitting the dictionary definition of a fascist.
“He commented more than once, 'You know, Hitler did some good things too,'” Kelly said, adding that Trump would rule like a dictator if re-elected.
Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general, made similar comments in an interview with The Atlantic.
Referring to the various reports, Harris said: “For Donald Trump to make the call is very concerning and incredibly dangerous. Adolf Hitler was responsible for the deaths of 6 million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Americans. It is a window into who Donald Trump really is, from those who know him best.
He added: “It is clear from John Kelly's words that Donald Trump fits perfectly into the general definition of a fascist and, in fact, promised to be a dictator from day one and promised to use the military in this way. Their personal fighters to carry out their personal and political vendettas.”
Harris called the Republican candidate a fascist for the second time in a week. Last week, when a Detroit radio interviewer asked Trump if his views amounted to fascism, he responded affirmatively, although he did not say the word directly.
A Trump spokesperson denied Kelly's claims that Trump said this, calling it “absolutely false.”
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Harris' comments Wednesday were a clear sign of a shift in tactics from a previous approach taken early on when he and his surrogates sought to undermine Trump after he became his party's nominee. In one example, mocking his obsession with the size of the crowds at his rallies.
Theories abound about what Harris could do to divert voters from Trump's appeal, which increased during Joe Biden's presidency and centered on promises to deport immigrants.
In an interview today on CNN, Republican pollster Frank Lundz said Harris' message this afternoon is not working.
“The interesting thing is [when] Harris focused on why he should be elected president, and that's when the numbers went up,” Lundz said.
“And then the moment he turned on Trump and focused on him and said, don't vote for me, vote against him, everything froze.”
Kelly's characterization of Trump as a fascist echoes that of Gen. Mark Milley, the retired former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In calling for Trump to be hanged, Milley cited journalist Bob Woodward, who called Trump “a complete fascist” and “fascist” in a recently published book.
