In a forceful and unexpected address on Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris delivered a blistering rebuke of former President Donald Trump, denouncing him as a “fascist” who yearns for “unchecked power” and demands unwavering loyalty from the military. Her scathing remarks come in the wake of explosive allegations that Trump repeatedly expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler during his tenure in the White House.
Speaking from her official residence in Washington DC, Harris pulled no punches as she warned about the grave dangers a second Trump term could pose to the nation. “Donald Trump is increasingly unhinged and unstable,” she cautioned, asserting that without the moderating influence of advisors like his former chief of staff, John Kelly, there would be no “guardrails against his propensities and his actions” in a future administration.
A Chilling Portrait of Trump’s Desires
The vice president painted a chilling portrait of a man who craves absolute control and personal fealty from the armed forces. Referencing the damning recollections shared by Kelly, Harris declared, “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.”
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.
– Kamala Harris on Donald Trump
Harris framed the upcoming presidential election as a pivotal choice for the American people, one that will determine the fate of the nation’s democracy. “We know what Donald Trump wants,” she asserted. “He wants unchecked power. The question in 13 days will be what do the American people want.”
Echoes of Past Warnings
The vice president’s unsparing assessment of Trump as a fascist echoes the concerns voiced by other high-ranking officials who served under the former president. Retired General Mark Milley, the former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is quoted in a recently released book by journalist Bob Woodward as referring to Trump as a “total fascist” and “fascist to the core.”
Trump, for his part, has vehemently denied the explosive claims made by Kelly, with his spokesperson dismissing them as “absolutely false.” However, the startling revelations have only intensified the scrutiny surrounding Trump’s character and fitness for office as the nation hurtles towards a momentous presidential election.
A Shift in Campaign Strategy
Harris’s fiery condemnation of Trump marks a notable shift in her campaign strategy. In the early stages of the race, the vice president and her surrogates initially sought to downplay and mock the former president, poking fun at his fixation on crowd sizes at rallies. However, as the election draws near and the stakes grow ever higher, Harris has opted for a more confrontational approach, directly challenging Trump’s character and the threat he poses to American democracy.
Political analysts and strategists are closely watching to see how this change in tactics will resonate with voters. Some, like veteran Republican pollster Frank Luntz, have cautioned that a purely anti-Trump message may not be enough to sway undecided voters. “What’s interesting is that [when] Harris focused on why she should be elected president, that’s when the numbers grew,” Luntz observed in a recent CNN interview. “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.”
The Final Stretch
As the presidential campaign enters its final, frenetic days, Kamala Harris’s blistering attack on Donald Trump is sure to reverberate across the political landscape. Her unequivocal denunciation of the former president as a fascist with autocratic ambitions has raised the stakes even further in an already heated and deeply consequential race.
With the nation’s future hanging in the balance, voters will soon render their verdict on whether they believe Trump’s vision of unchecked power and personal loyalty poses an existential threat to American democracy, or whether they are willing to embrace his promise of lower prices and a crackdown on immigration. The outcome of this pivotal election will not only determine the course of the United States for the next four years but could well shape the contours of American politics for a generation to come.
