Kamala Harris blasts ‘unhinged’ Trump over Adolph Hitler remarks

Kamala Harris is turning to an unlikely group of character witnesses in her final pitch to voters making the case that Donald Trump is unfit for office: his former White House advisers.

Donald Trump with John Kelly.

Kamala Harris is turning to an unlikely group of character witnesses in her final pitch to voters making the case that Donald Trump is unfit for office: her opponent’s former White House advisers.

Ms Harris on Wednesday sought to highlight former White House chief of staff John Kelly’s sharp criticism of the former president. The ex-Trump aide, in a piece the New York Times published a day earlier, said that the former president “prefers the dictator approach to government” and would fall into “the general definition of fascist, for sure.”

“He does not want a military that is loyal to the United States Constitution. He wants a military that is loyal to him,” Ms Harris told reporters at the Naval Observatory. She said the comments represented “a window into who Donald Trump really is from the people who know him best.”

In the campaign’s final weeks, Ms Harris has been targeting a narrow slice of moderate Republican and independent voters, holding events with former Rep. Liz Cheney (R., Wyo.) and GOP supporters to make the case that Mr Trump would bring instability. But it isn’t clear if that argument will break through – or if it does, whether it would resonate with enough voters to win her the election.

Mr Trump’s campaign has said Mr Kelly promoted “debunked stories” and said in a statement after Ms Harris’s remarks that the vice president “is increasingly desperate because she is flailing, and her campaign is in shambles. That is why she continues to peddle outright lies and falsehoods that are easily disproven.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, asked if President Biden agreed with Mr Kelly’s determination that Mr Trump was a fascist, said, “Yes.” Polling shows a deadlocked race.

The vice president has often used Mr Trump’s own words against him, pointing to his recent comments that one of the biggest threats the nation faces is “the enemy from within.” During a call organised by the Harris campaign, retired Army Brigadier Gen. Steve Anderson said many military members remain worried that Mr Trump would institute “loyalty tests” among leadership and wrongly use service members for domestic purposes.

“We’re concerned that he wants to use the military to suppress his opposition in the country and man the U.S. border, which are things the military are not supposed to do,” Gen. Anderson said.

Mr Kelly told the Times he was troubled by Mr Trump’s talk of using the military against what he characterised as the “enemy within.” Mr Kelly also confirmed past reports that Mr Trump had spoken positively about Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

In September, more than 230 generals, admirals and senior non-commissioned officers signed a letter endorsing Ms Harris. The letter was also signed by hundreds of other national security officials who didn’t serve in the military. The campaign has also aired advertising noting former Trump advisers who no longer support him.

It is customary for retired military officers to refrain from getting involved in politics or publicly endorsing candidates, though many do. Senior officers critical of the former president have argued a second Trump administration could do harm to the military as an institution.

H.R. McMaster, the retired Army three-star general who served as Mr Trump’s second national security adviser, has been outspoken about the dangers of a second Trump presidency and in particular in his book, “At War With Ourselves.”

“President Trump sees in authoritarian leaders the qualities that he wants other people to see in him,” Gen. McMaster told CBS in August.

Retired Marine General Jim Mattis, who served as Mr Trump’s first secretary of defence, has been loath to speak publicly about the former president but has written that he tries to divide the American people.

Mark Milley, who served as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, including about a year under MR Trump, called the former president “the most dangerous person in the country” in journalist Bob Woodward’s new book, “War.”

And at his retirement in September of last year, Mr Milley made clear his views of a commander in chief who puts self over country. While never mentioning Mr Trump by name, it was clear to most there who he was talking about.

“We don’t take an oath to a king, or a queen, or to a tyrant or dictator, and we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator,” Milley said.

Dow Jones