Kamala
Harris denounces Trump as ‘fascist’ who wants ‘unchecked power’
VP gives
surprise speech after reports that Trump’s former chief of staff said
ex-president repeatedly praised Hitler
Robert Tait in Washington
Wed 23 Oct 2024 15.10 EDT
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/23/harris-trump-fascist-hitler-comments-election
Kamala Harris has denounced Donald Trump as a “fascist” who
wants “unchecked power” and a military personally loyal to himself after
allegations emerged about the former president’s repeatedly-voiced admiration
for Hitler.
On Wednesday, the vice-president gave a surprise speech from
her Washington DC residence, doing so in the aftermath of reports that John
Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff, recalled how Trump lamented not having
generals who swore loyalty to him in the same manner as military commanders
served Hitler in Nazi Germany.
“Donald Trump is increasingly unhinged and unstable, and in
a second term, people like John Kelly would not be there to be the guardrails
against his propensities and his actions. Those who once tried to stop him from
pursuing his worst impulses would no longer be there and no longer be there to
rein him in,” Harris said.
Harris said that the remarks relayed by Kelly showed that
Trump “does not want a military that is loyal to the United States
constitution”.
“He wants a military who will be loyal to him, personally,
one that will obey his orders, even when he tells them to break the law or
abandon their oath to the constitution of the United States,” she said.
Posing the question as a stark choice for US voters going to
the polls for the presidential election on 5 November, she added: “We know what
Donald Trump wants. He wants unchecked power. The question in 13 days will be
what do the American people want.”
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Harris’s address came after she had spent more than a week
highlighting Trump’s earlier branding of his political opponents as “the enemy
within” and demands for the military to be deployed those who cause election
“chaos”.
In on-the-record taped conversations with the New York
Times, Kelly – who was White House chief of staff for 18 months during Trump’s
presidency – said his former boss repeatedly praised Hitler, even when
contradicted, and fitted the dictionary definition of a fascist.
“He commented more than once that: ‘You know, Hitler did
some good things, too,’” said Kelly, who also said that Trump would rule as a
dictator if elected again.
Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general, made similar
remarks in an interview with the Atlantic.
Referencing the various reporting, Harris said: “It is
deeply troubling and incredibly dangerous that Donald Trump would invoke Adolf
Hitler, the man who is responsible for the deaths of 6 million Jews and
hundreds of thousands of Americans. This is a window into who Donald Trump
really is, from the people who know him best.”
She added: “It is clear from John Kelly’s words that Donald
Trump is someone who, I quote, certainly falls into the general definition of
fascists, who, in fact, vowed to be a dictator on day one and vowed to use the
military as his personal militia to carry out his personal and political
vendettas.”
It was the second time in a week that Harris had, in effect,
labelled the Republican nominee a fascist. Last week, she answered
affirmatively when a Detroit radio interviewer who asked if Trump’s vision
amounted to fascism – although she did not utter the word directly.
Trump’s spokesperson has denied Kelly’s claims that Trump
said this, calling it “absolutely false”.
Harris’s remarks on Wednesday were the clearest sign yet
that she had changed tactics from a previous approach initially adopted after
becoming her party’s nominee, when she and her surrogates attempted to play
down and belittle Trump. In one example, by mocking his obsession with crowd
sizes at his rallies.
Theories abound as to what Harris could do to turn voters
away from Trump’s appeal, which has centered on vows to lower prices that rose
during Joe Biden’s presidency and throw immigrants out of the country.
In an interview earlier today on CNN, the noted Republican
pollster Frank Luntz said that the very sort of message Harris pushed this
afternoon was not working.
“What’s interesting is that [when] Harris focused on why she
should be elected president, that’s when the numbers grew,” Luntz said.
“And then the moment that she turned anti-Trump and focused
onto him and said, don’t vote for me, vote against him, that’s when everything
froze.”
Kelly’s characterisation of Trump as a fascist echoes that
of Gen Mark Milley, the retired former chair of the armed services joint chiefs
of staff. Milley, who Trump has said should be executed, is quoted by the
journalist Bob Woodward in a recently published book as calling Trump “a total
fascist” and “fascist to the core”.
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