Kamala Harris calls Trump a “fascist” as she argues he is “dangerous” and unfit for office

Vice President Kamala Harris called former President Donald Trump a “fascist” at a CNN town hall in Pennsylvania on Wednesday, echoing criticism from the former Republican chief of staff who more clearly told voters he was unfit for office.

John Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general and Trump's longest-serving White House chief of staff, spoke out this week and warned that his former boss met “the general definition of a fascist.” And he said that in private conversations: Trump admires dictators and said he wished he had military generals as loyal as Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Harris said Kelly's comments, made just two weeks before the election, were “an emergency call to the American people.”

“We have to take very seriously those who knew him best,” she continued, referring to the numerous former Trump advisers who broke with him and warned the public that the former president should not be allowed to take power again should trust.

“Do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?” host Anderson Cooper asked Harris.

“Yes, I do. Yes, I do,” she replied.

She later used the word herself to publicly refer to Trump for the first time, saying voters care about “not having a president of the United States who admires dictators and is a fascist.”

“I believe that Donald Trump is dangerous,” she continued. “As president of the United States, as commander in chief, he is essentially telling his generals: Why can't you be more like Hitler's generals? Light up!”

Harris has argued increasingly forcefully in recent days that Trump is unfit for office. After Kelly's comments became public on Wednesday, she emphasized them and criticized Trump.

Harris noted that she has the support of Republicans concerned about Trump's authoritarian tendencies, such as former Rep. Liz Cheney, who campaigned for her this week. And Harris promised that, unlike Trump, she would be a “president for all Americans.”

After the town hall concluded, Harris spoke directly to a churchgoer who asked her about abortion – telling him that she wasn't trying to convince him of her way of thinking, but that her pro-abortion position wasn't about being in conflict with anyone else's religious views to agree, but rather to keep the government out of the decision.

With less than two weeks until Election Day, polls show a deadlocked race between Trump and Harris. Analysts say the race is essentially a coin toss, with each contested state able to swing one way or the other.

Later at the town hall, Harris spoke about her personal religious beliefs in a way she rarely does.

“I pray every day. Sometimes twice a day,” she said, before recounting her childhood in church in Oakland, California. “I was raised to believe in a loving God. Believing that your belief is a verb. You live your faith and the way you should do that is your job and your life's work is to think about how you can serve to encourage other people.”

Meanwhile, across the country in Traverse City, Michigan, Trump used a 90-minute speech to continue his personal insults. He called Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz “a sick guy,” described Harris as “a low IQ person,” and added, “That woman is crazy.”

Trump also repeatedly criticized Detroit, the largest city in the crucial swing state of Michigan, saying that “it has been decimated by stupid politicians.”

“I've been hearing about Detroit's return for 40 years. I never came back,” he said later.

Trump's often meandering speech touched on many of his usual talking points, demonizing migrants as coming from prisons and mental institutions, highlighting cases of crimes allegedly committed by migrants and devoting much of his speech to discussing the southern border.

“I will save every city across America that has been invaded and conquered, and we will put these evil, bloodthirsty criminals in prison or throw them the hell out of the country,” Trump said of migrants.

During part of his remarks about the flood damage from Hurricane Helene, he referred to the disaster as a “water hurricane,” a comment the Harris campaign was quick to highlight on social media.

Trump also called Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard to the stage to address his supporters. Trump has frequently praised their support, arguing that it shows his supporters also have left-leaning backgrounds.