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Kamala Harris has attacked Donald Trump for seeking “unchecked power” if he wins the White House again, placing what she described as his threat to American democracy at the heart of her closing argument to voters less than two weeks before the presidential election.
In a rare statement from the vice-president’s residence in Washington on Wednesday, Harris attacked Trump for being “increasingly unhinged and unstable” and said there would be no “guardrails” to restrain him during a second term in office.
Harris’s comments were a reaction to comments in The New York Times from John Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff, who said the ex-president was an “authoritarian” who admired Adolf Hitler and fell into the “general definition of fascist”.
“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?” Harris said in her brief remarks.
The Democratic candidate was speaking before heading to Pennsylvania for a televised town hall on CNN, while Trump was campaigning in Georgia.
The Trump campaign rubbished Harris’s comments as “desperate” and “easily disproven”.
Polls put the two candidates in one of the tightest White House races in recent memory, leaving both vying for a closing message that wins crucial undecided voters.
While President Joe Biden frequently referred to Trump as a threat to democracy before ending his re-election bid in July, Harris’s pitch had focused instead on defending personal freedoms, such as abortion, and economic benefits for the middle class, often dismissing Trump as unserious and bizarre.
However, Harris appears to have pivoted back to what she considers Trump’s threats to the American democracy in the last stretch of the race as a way to create a more vivid contrast with him.
Trump’s rhetoric has grown darker in recent weeks, including his attacks on left-wing Americans as “the enemy within”, in his latest indication that he plans to seek retribution against his political enemies.
“Let’s be clear about who he considers to be the enemy from within: Anyone who refuses to bend a knee or dares to criticise him would qualify In his mind as the enemy, like judges, like journalists, like non-partisan election officials,” Harris said.
She also raised the prospect that Trump could use the US military for personal vendettas.
“He does not want a military that is loyal to the United States constitution. He wants a military that is loyal to him. 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,” Harris said.
The Atlantic magazine also reported Kelly’s claim that Trump had expressed admiration for Hitler’s generals.
Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign’s communications director, said Harris was a “stone cold loser who is increasingly desperate because she is flailing and her campaign is in shambles”. He accused the vice-president of “outright lies and falsehoods that are easily disproven” and said her “dangerous rhetoric” was to blame for recent alleged assassination attempts on Trump.
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