Kamala Harris has agreed that Donald Trump is a fascist in her most direct statement yet, painting her presidential opponent as a potential autocrat who harbors authoritarian views should he return to the White House.
The US vice president and Democratic candidate crossed a psychologically important boundary by addressing the issue of fascism in an interview with Charlamagne Tha God, an influential radio host whose audience reaches a predominantly black audience of 8 million monthly listeners. The conversation took place during a campaign stop in Detroit, the center of a battle between the two candidates for the battleground state of Michigan.
Laying out the electoral options in the hour-long telephone interviewHarris was initially cautious, telling her host that voters in the November 5 election “have two options… and they are two very different visions of our nation” before giving a vague definition of his vision.
Charlamagne then, in fact, goaded her to take a leap, saying: “The other one is about fascism. Why can't we just say it?
Harris immediately responded: “Yes, we can say that.”
It is the first time Harris has publicly endorsed the use of the word fascist to describe Trump and his plan for government, although some observers have raised it repeatedly as her campaign rhetoric and threats to jail her political opponents have become more sinister.
His explicit endorsement of the word to describe Trump breaks new ground in a presidential campaign in which he already criticized his warm relationship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and declared his admiration for other foreign autocrats.
Harris' comments went far further than the previous day's attack on Trump's increasingly authoritarian rhetoric, when she called him “unstable and unhinged” and “dangerous” in response to his branding of Democratic opponents as “the enemy within.” ”. Trump had also advocated using the military against opponents whom he accused of planning “chaos” on Election Day, although – as an opposition candidate – he has no power to do so.
A newly published book by journalist Bob Woodward quotes retired chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, calling Trump a “total fascist” and “fascist to the core.”
The Trump campaign immediately denounced Harris' comments for inciting Trump's most virulent critics to try to kill him, a claim that the former president's supporters have frequently directed at Democrats for portraying him as a threat to democracy.
“This is the type of disgusting rhetoric that led to two assassination attempts on President Trump,” the former president's campaign said. up to date on X.
The condemnation overlooked the fact that Trump has repeatedly called Harris a fascist, as well as a communist and Marxist.
At a rally in Michigan on August 29, for example, Trump said, “She's a Marxist.” He also called her a “comrade,” a prefix intended to denote her supposedly communist affiliations. He also called Democrats “scum” and “absolute trash.”
Speculation has long circulated about Trump's alleged fascist sympathies. John Kelly, who was White House chief of staff during his presidency, said in an interview to promote his memoir that Trump said Hitler “did some good things,” crediting him with rebuilding Germany's economy.
Kelly said he responded: “'Sir, you can never say anything good about this guy. Nothing. “I mean, Mussolini was a great guy in comparison.”
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