Unchecked power

Harris on Kelly reports: Trump ‘wants unchecked power’

John Kelly, Donald Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff, told The New York Times the former president is “certainly an authoritarian” who “falls into the general definition of fascist.”

Irie Sentner

Kamala Harris responded on Wednesday to Donald Trump’s former top aide’s assertion that he is a “fascist” who said Adolf “Hitler did some good things,” accusing the former president of hoping to wield the U.S. military for his own “unchecked power.”

“Donald Trump said that because he does not want a military that is loyal to the United States Constitution,” Harris said, delivering remarks in her official capacity from the vice presidential residence. “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.”

John Kelly, Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff who before that served as his administration’s Homeland Security secretary, told The New York Times in an interview published Tuesday that Trump is “certainly an authoritarian” who “falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure.”

Earlier this year, Kelly told CNN he was concerned about Trump’s adulation of the “loyalty” among Hitler’s generals and praise for authoritarian leaders like Russian President Vladmir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whom he has repeatedly celebrated on the campaign trail.

Kelly told both the Times and CNN that Trump had said “Hitler did some good things.”

“It is deeply troubling and incredibly dangerous that Donald Trump would invoke Adolf Hitler, the man who is responsible for the deaths of 6 million Jews, and hundreds of thousands of Americans,” Harris said Wednesday.

“We know what Donald Trump wants. He wants unchecked power,” the vice president added. “The question in 13 days will be, What do the American people want?”

In a statement to POLITICO, Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung did not respond to any of Harris or Kelly’s assertions about Trump, but called Harris a “stone-cold loser who is increasingly desperate.” He added that her “dangerous rhetoric is directly to blame for the multiple assassination attempts against” Trump and said “her grotesque behavior proves she is wholly unfit for office.”