Harris calls Trump a ‘fascist,’ says he ‘admires dictators’

Vice President Kamala Harris said Wednesday that she believes that Donald Trump “is a fascist” aft his longest-serving main of unit said the erstwhile president praised Adolf Hitler portion successful bureau and enactment idiosyncratic loyalty supra the Constitution.

Harris seized connected comments by erstwhile main of unit John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, astir his erstwhile brag successful interviews with The New York Times and The Atlantic published Tuesday informing that the Republican nominee meets the explanation of a fascist and that portion successful bureau helium suggested that the Nazi person “did immoderate bully things.”

Speaking astatine a CNN municipality hall, Harris said they connection a model into who the erstwhile president “really is” and the benignant of commandant successful main helium would be.

When asked if she believed that Trump is simply a fascist, Harris replied twice, “Yes, I do.” Later, she brought it up herself, saying Trump would, if elected again, beryllium “a president who admires dictators and is simply a fascist.”

The Democratic statesmanlike nominee said Kelly’s comments, little than 2 weeks earlier voters volition determine whether to nonstop Trump backmost to the Oval Office, were a “911 telephone to the American people” by the erstwhile main of staff. They were rapidly seized by Harris arsenic portion of her closing connection to voters arsenic she works to sharpen the prime astatine the ballot container for Americans.

“I judge Donald Trump is simply a information to the well-being and information of the United States of America,” she said, saying the American radical merit a president who maintains “certain standards,” which see “certainly not comparing oneself, successful a intelligibly admiring way, to Hitler.”

She added that if reelected, Trump would nary longer beryllium tempered by radical who would “restrain him” from his worst impulses.

Earlier Wednesday, Harris repeated her progressively dire warnings astir Trump’s intelligence fittingness and his intentions for the presidency.

“This is simply a model into who Donald Trump truly is, from the radical who cognize him best, from the radical who person worked with him broadside by broadside successful the Oval Office and successful the Situation Room,” Harris told reporters extracurricular the vice president’s residence successful Washington.

The comments from Kelly, the retired Marine wide who worked for Trump successful the White House from 2017 to 2019, built connected past warnings from erstwhile apical Trump officials arsenic the predetermination enters its last 2 weeks.

Kelly has agelong been captious of Trump and antecedently accused him of calling veterans killed successful combat “suckers” and “losers.” His caller warnings emerged arsenic Trump seeks a 2nd word vowing to dramatically grow his usage of the subject astatine location and suggesting helium would usage unit to spell aft Americans helium considers “enemies from within.”

“He commented much than erstwhile that, ‘You know, Hitler did immoderate bully things, too,’” Kelly recalled to the Times. Kelly said helium would usually quash the speech by saying “nothing (Hitler) did, you could argue, was good,” but Trump would occasionally bring up the taxable again.

In his interrogation with The Atlantic, Kelly recalled that erstwhile Trump raised the thought of needing “German generals,” Kelly would inquire if helium meant “Bismarck’s generals,” referring to Otto von Bismarck, the chancellor who oversaw the unification of Germany. “Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals,” Kelly recalled asking Trump. To which the erstwhile president responded, “Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.”

Trump said connected his Truth Social media level that Kelly had “made up a story” and went connected to heap insults connected his erstwhile main of staff, including that Kelly’s “toughness morphed into weakness.”

Trump’s run besides denied the accounts. Campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said Kelly had “beclowned himself with these debunked stories helium has fabricated” and, aft Harris’ statement, accused the Democratic campaigner of sharing “outright lies and falsehoods.”

Chris Sununu, New Hampshire’s Republican politician and onetime Trump critic, said Kelly’s comments did not alteration his plans to ballot for the erstwhile president.

“Look, we’ve heard a batch of utmost things astir Donald Trump, from Donald Trump. It’s truly par for the course,” the politician told CNN. “Unfortunately, with a feline similar that, it’s benignant of baked into the ballot astatine this point.”

Some of the erstwhile president’s supporters successful plaything states responded to Kelly’s comments with a shrug.

“Trump did his 4 years, and we were successful large shape. Kelly didn’t person thing bully to accidental astir Trump. He ought to person his butt kicked,” said Jim Lytner, a longtime advocator for veterans successful Nevada who served successful the Army successful Vietnam and co-founded the nonprofit Veterans Transition Resource Center.

Harris said Wednesday that Trump admired Hitler’s generals due to the fact that helium “does not privation a subject that is loyal to the United States Constitution, helium wants a subject that is loyal to him. He wants a subject who volition beryllium loyal to him personally.”

Polls amusement the contention is choky successful plaything states, and some Trump and Harris are crisscrossing the state making their last pitches to the sliver of undecided voters. Harris’ run has spent sizeable clip reaching retired to autarkic voters, utilizing the enactment of longtime Republicans specified arsenic erstwhile Rep. Liz Cheney and comments similar Kelly’s to impulse past Trump voters to cull his candidacy successful November.

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Harris’ run held a telephone with reporters Tuesday to elevate the voices of retired subject officials who highlighted however galore of the officials who worked with Trump present reason his campaign.

“People that cognize him champion are astir opposed to him, his presidency,” said retired Army Brig. Gen. Steve Anderson.

Anderson said helium wished Kelly would afloat backmost Harris implicit Trump, thing helium has yet to do. But retired Army Reserve Col. Kevin Carroll, a erstwhile elder counsellor to Kelly, said Wednesday that the erstwhile apical Trump authoritative would “rather chew breached solid than ballot for Donald Trump.”

Before serving arsenic Trump’s main of staff, Kelly worked arsenic the erstwhile president’s caput of homeland security, wherever helium oversaw Trump’s attempts to physique a partition on the U.S.-Mexico border. Kelly was besides astatine the forefront of the administration’s crackdown successful migration argumentation that led to the separation of thousands of migrant parents and their children on the confederate border. Those actions made him a villain to galore connected the left, including Harris.

After Kelly near the Trump medication and joined the committee of a institution operating the nation’s largest detention halfway for unaccompanied migrant children, Harris wrote during her 2019 tally for president that helium was “the architect” of the administration’s “cruel kid separation policy. Now helium volition nett disconnected the separation of families. It’s unethical. We are amended than this.”

When she was successful Miami for a superior statement successful June 2019, Harris was besides 1 of a twelve Democratic statesmanlike candidates who visited the detention halfway southbound of the metropolis and protested against the administration’s harsh attraction of young migrants.

In his interrogation with the Times, Kelly besides said Trump met the explanation of a fascist. After speechmaking the explanation aloud, including that fascism was “a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist governmental ideology and question characterized by a dictatorial leader,” Kelly concluded Trump “certainly falls into the wide explanation of fascist, for sure.”

Kelly added that Trump often fumed astatine immoderate effort to constrain his power, and that “he would emotion to be” a dictator.

“He surely prefers the dictator attack to government,” Kelly told the Times, adding later, “I deliberation he’d emotion to beryllium conscionable similar helium was successful concern — helium could archer radical to bash things and they would bash it, and not truly fuss excessively overmuch astir whether what the legalities were and whatnot.”

Kelly is not the archetypal erstwhile apical Trump medication authoritative to formed the erstwhile president arsenic a threat.

Retired Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, who served arsenic Trump’s president of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Bob Woodward successful his caller publication “War” that Trump was “fascist to the core” and “the astir unsafe idiosyncratic to this country.” And retired Gen. Jim Mattis, who worked arsenic caput of defence nether Trump, reportedly aboriginal told Woodward that helium agreed with Milley’s assessment.

Throughout Trump’s governmental rise, the businessman-turned-politician benefited from the enactment of subject veterans.

AP VoteCast recovered that astir 6 successful 10 subject veterans said they voted for Trump successful 2020, arsenic did conscionable implicit fractional of those with a seasoned successful the household. Among voters successful this year’s South Carolina Republican primary, AP VoteCast recovered that adjacent to two-thirds of subject veterans and radical successful seasoned households voted for Trump implicit erstwhile South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Trump’s toughest hostile successful the 2024 Republican primary.

Associated Press writers Linley Sanders successful Washington, Ken Ritter successful Las Vegas, Zeke Miller successful Aston, Pennsylvania, and Adriana Gomez Licon successful Miami contributed to this report.