Harris says Trump ‘is a fascist’ after John Kelly says the former president wanted generals like Hitler’s
ASTON, Pa. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris said that she believes that Donald Trump “is a fascist” after his longest-serving chief of staff said the former president praised Adolf Hitler while in office and put personal loyalty above the Constitution.
Harris seized on comments by former chief of staff John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, about his former boss in interviews with The New York Times and The Atlantic published Tuesday warning that the Republican nominee meets the definition of a fascist and that Trump, while in office, suggested that the Nazi leader “did some good things.”
Speaking at a CNN town hall Wednesday night, Harris said they offer a window into who the former president “really is” and the kind of commander in chief he would be.
When asked if she believed that Trump is a fascist, Harris replied twice, “Yes, I do.” Later, she brought it up herself, saying Trump would, if elected again, be “a president who admires dictators and is a fascist.”
The Democratic presidential nominee said Kelly’s comments, less than two weeks before voters will decide whether to send Trump back to the Oval Office, were a “911 call to the American people” by the former chief of staff. They were quickly seized by Harris as part of her closing message to voters as she works to sharpen the choice at the ballot box for Americans.
“I believe Donald Trump is a danger to the well-being and security of the United States of America,” she said, saying the American people deserve a president who maintains “certain standards,” which include “certainly not comparing oneself, in a clearly admiring way, to Hitler.”
She added that if reelected, Trump would no longer be tempered by people who would “restrain him” from his worst impulses.
Earlier Wednesday, Harris repeated her increasingly dire warnings about Trump’s mental fitness and his intentions for the presidency.
“This is a window into who Donald Trump really is, from the people who know him best, from the people who have worked with him side by side in the Oval Office and in the Situation Room,” Harris told reporters outside the vice president’s residence in Washington.
The comments from Kelly, the retired Marine general who worked for Trump in the White House from 2017 to 2019, built on past warnings from former top Trump officials as the election enters its final two weeks.
Kelly has long been critical of Trump and previously accused him of calling veterans killed in combat “suckers” and “losers.” His new warnings emerged as Trump seeks a second term vowing to dramatically expand his use of the military at home and suggesting he would use force to go after Americans he considers “enemies from within.”
“He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too,’” Kelly recalled to the Times. Kelly said he would usually quash the conversation by saying “nothing (Hitler) did, you could argue, was good,” but Trump would occasionally bring up the topic again.
In his interview with The Atlantic, Kelly recalled that when Trump raised the idea of needing “German generals,” Kelly would ask if he 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 former president responded, “Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.”
Trump said on his Truth Social media platform that Kelly had “made up a story” and went on to heap insults on his former chief of staff, including that Kelly’s “toughness morphed into weakness.”
Trump’s campaign also denied the accounts. Campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said Kelly had “beclowned himself with these debunked stories he has fabricated” and, after Harris’ statement, accused the Democratic candidate of sharing “outright lies and falsehoods.”
Chris Sununu, New Hampshire’s Republican governor and onetime Trump critic, said Kelly’s comments did not change his plans to vote for the former president.
“Look, we’ve heard a lot of extreme things about Donald Trump, from Donald Trump. It’s really par for the course,” the governor told CNN. “Unfortunately, with a guy like that, it’s kind of baked into the vote at this point.”
Some of the former president’s supporters in swing states responded to Kelly’s comments with a shrug.
“Trump did his four years, and we were in great shape. Kelly didn’t have anything good to say about Trump. He ought to have his butt kicked,” said Jim Lytner, a longtime advocate for veterans in Nevada who served in the Army in Vietnam and co-founded the nonprofit Veterans Transition Resource Center.
Harris said Wednesday that Trump admired Hitler’s generals because he “does not want a military that is loyal to the United States Constitution, he wants a military that is loyal to him. He wants a military who will be loyal to him personally.”
Polls show the race is tight in swing states, and both Trump and Harris are crisscrossing the country making their final pitches to the sliver of undecided voters. Harris’ campaign has spent considerable time reaching out to independent voters, using the support of longtime Republicans such as former Rep. Liz Cheney and comments like Kelly’s to urge past Trump voters to reject his candidacy in November.
Harris’ campaign held a call with reporters Tuesday to elevate the voices of retired military officials who highlighted how many of the officials who worked with Trump now oppose his campaign.
“People that know him best are most opposed to him, his presidency,” said retired Army Brig. Gen. Steve Anderson.
Anderson said he wished Kelly would fully back Harris over Trump, something he has yet to do. But retired Army Reserve Col. Kevin Carroll, a former senior counselor to Kelly, said Wednesday that the former top Trump official would “rather chew broken glass than vote for Donald Trump.”
Before serving as Trump’s chief of staff, Kelly worked as the former president’s secretary of homeland security, where he oversaw Trump’s attempts to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Kelly was also at the forefront of the administration’s crackdown in immigration policy that led to the separation of thousands of immigrant parents and their children along the southern border. Those actions made him a villain to many on the left, including Harris.
After Kelly left the Trump administration and joined the board of a company operating the nation’s largest detention center for unaccompanied migrant children, Harris wrote during her 2019 run for president that he was “the architect” of the administration’s “cruel child separation policy. Now he will profit off the separation of families. It’s unethical. We are better than this.”
When she was in Miami for a primary debate in June 2019, Harris was also one of a dozen Democratic presidential candidates who visited the detention center south of the city and protested against the administration’s harsh treatment of young migrants.
In his interview with the Times, Kelly also said Trump met the definition of a fascist. After reading the definition aloud, including that fascism was “a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader,” Kelly concluded Trump “certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure.”
Kelly added that Trump often fumed at any attempt to constrain his power, and that “he would love to be” a dictator.
“He certainly prefers the dictator approach to government,” Kelly told the Times, adding later, “I think he’d love to be just like he was in business — he could tell people to do things and they would do it, and not really bother too much about whether what the legalities were and whatnot.”
Kelly is not the first former top Trump administration official to cast the former president as a threat.
Retired Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, who served as Trump’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Bob Woodward in his recent book “War” that Trump was “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country.” And retired Gen. Jim Mattis, who worked as secretary of defense under Trump, reportedly later told Woodward that he agreed with Milley’s assessment.
Throughout Trump’s political rise, the businessman-turned-politician benefited from the support of military veterans.
AP VoteCast found that about 6 in 10 military veterans said they voted for Trump in 2020, as did just over half of those with a veteran in the household. Among voters in this year’s South Carolina Republican primary, AP VoteCast found that close to two-thirds of military veterans and people in veteran households voted for Trump over former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Trump’s toughest opponent in the 2024 Republican primary.
‘60 Minutes’ publicly releases transcripts of interview at heart of its dispute with Trump
That’s what Trump contended in a $10 billion lawsuit he filed against the network in November, reportedly the subject of ongoing settlement talks.
In a separate track, the Federal Communications Commission last week called for CBS to send transcripts and clips of the interview, which CBS did before making them public on Wednesday. The interview with the Democratic presidential candidate, portions of which were aired on “60 Minutes” and “Face the Nation,” attracted attention because clips showed her giving different answers to a question about Israel that was posed by correspondent Bill Whitaker.
In his lawsuit, filed before Trump won election to his second term, the Republican contended the editing was done to give advantage to Harris, his Democratic opponent.
Yet CBS said that the material it was releasing on Wednesday show “consistent with ”60 Minutes’” repeated assurances to the public, that the “60 Minutes” broadcast was not doctored or deceitful,” CBS said in a statement.
The network said that journalists regularly edit interviews for time, space and clarity.
“In making these edits, ‘60 Minutes’ is always guided by the truth and what we believe will be most informative to the viewing public, all while working within the constraints of broadcast television,” the network said.
Despite CBS News’ contention that it did nothing wrong in its editing, the news division’s parent company Paramount is reportedly engaged in settlement talks. Paramount executives are seeking the Trump administration’s approval of a sale to another entertainment firm, Skydance.
Kamala Harris’ Stepdaughter Ella Emhoff Tweaks Office Siren Trend in NYFW Photos
At New York Fashion Week, Kamala Harris’ stepdaughter, Ella Emhoff, turned the office siren trend on its head while attending the Thom Browne show on February 11. The 25-year-old brought her unique style and commanded attention at the event, which was held at The Shed, with her quirky corpcore look. Emhoff’s ensemble consisted of a blazer and a matching skirt that featured eccentric artsy detailing.
Ella Emhoff arrives at Thom Browne’s show in a quirky corpcore look
After attending the Tory Burch and Coach show, Ella Emhoff, stepdaughter of former Vice President Kamala Harris, made sure to turn heads with her distinctive style at the Thom Browne fashion show during New York Fashion Week. The artist embraced corpcore and arrived at the event in office attire that came with a chic twist. Emhoff wore a grey checkered blazer and layered it above a white shirt. The formal piece featured side pockets and was adorned with black buttons.
Emhoff continued to coordinate the blazer with a matching pleated skirt. While posing for the cameras, she slightly lifted the piece up to give a detailed look at the textured adornment of flying birds. The brown-beige-black-white detailing worked splendidly in contrast to the grey formal attire. Apart from this, Emhoff also wore sheer black socks underneath the glossy pair of maroon block heels.
Besides the trim outfit, Kamala Harris’ stepdaughter neatly tucked her short hair down with plain black hairclips. She rounded off the workplace-inspired look with round-rimmed eyeglasses. Meanwhile, Emhoff’s choice of accessory for the occasion was equally eye-catching. She carried a huge pig-shaped handbag during the outing.
More notably, Ella Emhoff’s look also redefined the office siren trend. The phenomenon exploded on the social media platforms in recent years. The popular trend blends classic workplace fashion with bold and modern aesthetics. Emhoff, an artist and a knitter herself, added her take to the office siren trend as she opted for the skirt that came with an artsy touch.
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