Vice President Harris accused former President Trump of seeking ‘unchecked power’ and being ‘unhinged and unstable’ during brief remarks on Wednesday.
Harris spoke from the White House complex in response to remarks made by Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff John Kelly in interviews published Tuesday in The New York Times and The Atlantic.
‘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,’ Harris said. ‘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.’
Kelly, the retired Marine general who worked for Trump in the White House from 2017 to 2019, told the Times and The Atlantic that the Republican presidential nominee meets the definition of a fascist and that while in office, Trump suggested that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler ‘did some good things.’
‘Donald Trump said that because he does not want a military that is loyal to the United States Constitution,’ Harris said Wednesday. ‘He wants a military that is loyal to him. 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.’
Harris also targeted Trump’s remarks describing an ‘enemy from within.’ The Democratic nominee said it was ‘deeply troubling and incredibly dangerous’ that Trump ‘would invoke Adolf Hitler, the man who is responsible for the deaths of 6 million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Americans.’
‘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 of Trump possibly being re-elected on Nov. 5. ‘The bottom line is this: We know what Donald Trump wants. He wants unchecked power. The question in 13 days will be, what do the American people want?’
Fox News Digital reached out to the Trump campaign for comment, but they did not immediately respond.
Kash Patel, who served several roles in the Trump administration, reacted to Harris’ remarks, defending the 45th president’s record as commander-in-chief after Kelly’s disparaging interviews.
‘They want to call him Hitler and print out more disinformation,’ Patel said. ‘I guess that’s all they got because Kamala Harris could have brought the hostages home right now in Israel from a war she started with $7 billion she gave to Iran, and she hasn’t brought home any of them. She started two more world wars.’
Patel said he observed Trump ‘withdraw out of multiple theatres of conflict,’ ‘a commander-in-chief who brought home over 50 hostages and detainees from around the world, more than any president before him combined,’ and how Trump attended almost every dignified transfer and ‘spent countless hours with the families of the fallen’ and give them the needed financial assistance.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.