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“Vice President Kamala Harris said that she believes that Donald Trump ‘is a fascist’ after his longest-serving chief of staff said the former president praised Adolf Hitler while in office and put personal loyalty above the Constitution…
“Harris seized on comments by former chief of staff John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, about his former boss in interviews with The New York Times and The Atlantic published Tuesday warning that the Republican nominee meets the definition of a fascist and that Trump, while in office, suggested that the Nazi leader ‘did some good things.’” AP News
“Retired U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley said former President Trump is ‘a fascist to the core,’ according to journalist Bob Woodward's forthcoming book… ‘I had suspicions when I talked to you about his mental decline and so forth, but now I realize he's a total fascist,’ Milley, who served as chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2019 to 2023, said to Woodward.” Axios
The left argues that Trump’s rhetoric fits the definition of fascism.
“It is simply extraordinary that the nation’s top general would tell anyone, much less one of the most famous reporters in the world, that the former president of the United States was a ‘fascist’ — a ‘fascist to the core,’ even — and a threat to the constitutional order. There is no precedent for such a thing in American history…
“News of [Milley’s] 2023 assessment broke last Friday. That afternoon, and as if to prove the point, Trump dived even deeper into the rhetorical abyss, telling his followers that he would deploy an 18th-century law to ‘liberate’ the country from immigrants once and for all… There is both a temptation and a tendency to dismiss all of this as just tough talk…
“This, as I’ve argued again and again, is a mistake. Presidential rhetoric corresponds to presidential action; it precedes and defines it. What a candidate says on the campaign trail connects to what he (or she) will do in office. And if Trump has had a single consistent message, it is that he’ll use the violent arm of the state to cleanse the nation of ‘scum’ and ‘vermin,’ whether immigrants and refugees or dissenters and political opponents like Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi.”
Jamelle Bouie, New York Times
“Trump blurs the distinction between illegal immigrants and legal immigrants—the latter including his wife, his late ex-wife, the in-laws of his running mate, and many others. He has said of immigrants, ‘They’re poisoning the blood of our country’ and ‘They’re destroying the blood of our country.’ He has claimed that many have ‘bad genes.’ He has also been more explicit: ‘They’re not humans; they’re animals’; they are ‘cold-blooded killers.’…
“Until recently, this kind of language was not a normal part of American presidential politics. Even George Wallace’s notorious, racist, neo-Confederate 1963 speech, his inaugural speech as Alabama governor and the prelude to his first presidential campaign, avoided such language. Wallace called for ‘segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.’ But he did not speak of his political opponents as ‘vermin’ or talk about them poisoning the nation’s blood.”
Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic
“Imagine if Harris were promising to end the war in Gaza on her first day in office but wouldn’t say how. Imagine if she were proposing a tariffs-based economic plan that economists say would destabilize the world economy and cost the average family $4,000 a year in higher prices… And imagine if Harris were vowing to use the military to go after her political opponents…
“First, Harris was criticized for not doing enough interviews — so she did multiple interviews, including with nontraditional media. She was criticized for not doing hostile interviews — so she went toe to toe with Bret Baier of Fox News. She was criticized as being comfortable only at scripted rallies — so she did unscripted events… Somehow, it is apparently baked into this campaign that Trump is allowed to talk and act like a complete lunatic while Harris has to be perfect in every way.”
Eugene Robinson, Washington Post
The right defends Trump, arguing that calling him a fascist is not accurate.
The right defends Trump, arguing that calling him a fascist is not accurate.
“The indictment against Trump as a budding fascist often relies on distortions or exaggerations. He said in an interview with Sean Hannity that he wouldn’t be a dictator, except for Day 1 — a joke referring to the executive actions he’d undertake the first day. This has become Trump’s supposed pledge to become a dictator beginning on Day 1…
“He has said the National Guard or military could be deployed to quell election-related unrest in the streets if he wins. This has become Trump threatening to use troops to go after his political enemies, as if he’s talking about the 101st Airborne arresting Democratic senators…
“Obviously, Trump isn’t deploying a paramilitary wing of the GOP to intimidate and war with his enemies on the streets… In his first term, he appointed constitutionalist judges, reduced the power of the federal government, extolled free enterprise, restored due process on college campuses and proved a profound friend of the Jewish state. Instead of pursuing a politics of racial purity, he is now trying to build a more multi-racial political coalition and showing signs of success.”
Rich Lowry, New York Post
“The fear of fascism would have more credibility if Democrats didn’t abuse power themselves… Democrats exploited the Russia collusion narrative in 2016 until it was exposed as a lie financed by Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Democrats tried to keep Mr. Trump off the presidential ballot this year. Democrats have used the law in no fewer than five cases to disqualify him—and New York’s Attorney General campaigned explicitly on a promise to find something, anything, to charge him with…
“Democrats—including Ms. Harris—are also candid in saying they want to compromise the independence of the Supreme Court with new political rules and supervision. If they get even narrow control of the Senate, along with the House and White House, they say they will break the 60-vote filibuster rule to do it. That in our view is a greater threat to the Constitution than anything Mr. Trump might be able to do in a second term.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
“Harris has not walked back providing taxpayer dollars to cover the gender transitions of prisoners. She has not walked back her support for boys in girls’ sports. Even on fracking, Harris has offered a mixed bag of positions while assuring environmentalists they could trust her. Every opportunity Harris had to moderate a position and calm the nerves of those hesitant to vote for her, she has taken a ‘you will vote for me and like it’ approach…
“For a candidate who claims Donald Trump is a threat to democracy, [Harris] never showed Trump weary voters skeptical of her that she was not a threat to them, their values, and their pocketbook. She could have moderated. She decided she did not have to. That may cost her everything. If the Democrats really, truly believed Trump was the threat they claim he is, they would have compromised and moderated instead of going for broke.”
Erick-Woods Erickson, Substack
Heartwarming Winners of the 2024 Dog Photography Awards.
My Modern Met
