Vice President Kamala Harris delivered a rare public speech in front of her official residence in Washington on Wednesday to raise the alarm about Donald Trump’s stated desire to use the presidency to punish his political rivals and deploy the military “as his personal militia to carry out his personal and political vendettas.”
Harris accused Trump of wanting “unchecked power,” citing recently published interviews with John Kelly, a retired four-star general who served as Trump’s White House chief of staff and Homeland Security Secretary. Kelly told The Atlantic that Trump claimed he wanted “the kind of generals that Hitler had.” (The Trump campaign disputes Kelly’s allegations.)
Pointing to a recent Kelly interview with The New York Times, Harris said, “It is clear from John Kelly’s words that Donald Trump is someone who, I quote, ‘certainly falls into the general definition of fascist.’”
It is unusual for a Vice President to make a political statement from the official residence on Observatory Hill. Harris is in the final two weeks of a tight race against Trump and her campaign has ratched up its messages about the threat to democracy Trump poses.
“And it is clear from John Kelly’s words that Donald Trump is someone who, I quote, ‘certainly falls into the general definition of fascist,’ 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.”
In recent months, Trump has increasingly used authoritarian rhetoric, referring to the threat he sees from “the enemy within” and calling for one “violent day” to crack down on crime in the U.S. Trump has also shared messages on social media calling for military tribunals for his political antagonists like the former Rep. Liz Cheney, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and his own former Vice President, Mike Pence. In December, Trump said he’d only be a dictator on “day one” in order to close the border and expand oil drilling.
Read more: Former Trump Aides Warn of Secret Presidential Crisis Powers
At a White House press briefing on Wednesday after Harris’ speech, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, said “Yes” when asked if President Biden believes Trump is a fascist. “The former president said he is going to be a dictator on day one. We cannot ignore that,” she said.
Harris underscored that point Wednesday, saying that the question of how to respond to Trump’s ambitions will be put to voters on Election Day. “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?”
