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ASPartOfMe
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24 Oct 2024, 5:12 am

Kamala Harris calls Trump a 'fascist' as she argues he's 'dangerous' and unfit for office

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Vice President Kamala Harris called former President Donald Trump a “fascist” at a CNN town hall Wednesday in Pennsylvania — echoing his onetime chief of staff's criticism as she makes a more vocal pitch to voters that he is unfit for office.

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

“Yes, I do. Yes, I do,” she replied.

Later, she used the word herself to refer to Trump for the first time in public, 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 the president of the United States, the commander in chief, he’s saying to his generals, in essence, why can’t you be more like Hitler’s generals? Come on!”

Harris has more forcefully been arguing in recent days that Trump is unfit for office. On Wednesday, after Kelly's remarks became public, she gave remarks to emphasize them and criticize Trump.

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

Trump posted to X and Truth Social moments after the town hall ended, arguing that Harris "sees that she is losing," so she "is increasingly raising her rhetoric, going so far as to call me Adolf Hitler, and anything else that comes to her warped mind."

After the town hall, Harris spoke directly with an attendee who asked her about abortion — telling him that she wasn't trying to convert him to her way of thinking and that her abortion position wasn't about disagreeing with anyone's religious views but instead about keeping the government out of the decision.

With less than two weeks until Election Day, polls show a deadlocked race, with analysts saying it is essentially a coin-flip, with each battleground state able to flip either way.

Later in the town hall, Harris opened up about her religious faith in a way she rarely does.

“I do pray every day. Sometimes twice a day,” she said, before she recounted her childhood church in Oakland, California. “I was raised to believe in a loving God. To believe that your faith is a verb. You live your faith and that the way that one should do that is your work and your life’s work is to think about ways you can serve that is uplifting other people.”

Meanwhile, halfway across the country in Traverse City, Michigan, Trump used a 90-minute speech to continue personal insults, calling Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, “a sick guy,” referring to Harris as “a low IQ individual” and adding, “This woman is crazy.”

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

“For 40 years, I’ve been hearing about Detroit’s coming back. Never came back,” he said later.

Trump’s speech, often meandering, hit many of his usual talking points, demonizing migrants as coming from prisons and insane asylums, highlighting cases of crimes allegedly committed by migrants and spending a lot of time discussing the southern border.

“I will rescue every town across America that has been invaded and conquered, and we will put these vicious, bloodthirsty criminals in jail or kick them the hell out of the country,” he said about migrants.

During a part of his remarks discussing Hurricane Helene’s flood damage, he referred to the disaster as “a water hurricane,” a comment the Harris campaign quickly highlighted on social media.

Putting aside if Trump is actually a fascist, with less then two weeks to go before the election and over nine years into the Trump phenomenon the Harris campaign is still playing whack a mole with messaging, trying to figure out what sticks. First it was “joy”, then “brat summer”, then MAGA’s are “weird”, then implying Trump is senile, now its borrowing from the unsuccessful Hillary playbook and taking it step further by actually using the word fascist.

This election should have been a no brainer because unlike 2016 we have precedent of Trump winning, years of evidence he won’t fundamentally change, Jan 6, a conviction, and being held libel for fraud and rape.

It is true that because of the unusual circumstances they did not have much time to get a campaign together and figure these things out, but this is a situation they created. Harris did not do her constitutional duty and invoke the 25th amendment. This was the consensus of the party because Biden beat Trump in 2020, ignoring consistent polling that showed Biden’s senility was a big problem, and that Harris was just as much if not more unelectable then Biden.


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Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 24 Oct 2024, 5:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

Tim_Tex
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24 Oct 2024, 5:42 am

Supposedly, Trump only mentions young, white female victims of crimes committed by said migrants. No mention of older, male, or non-white victims.

And his supporters fall for it every time. They think Latin Americans only come here in search of white p***y, not for better economic opportunities.

If a native-born white person commits an equally heinous crime, it's met with total silence from the MAGAs.


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25 Oct 2024, 12:21 pm

I found it refreshing that a Democrat has finally begun to fight fire with fire. The more "intense" Republicans have so often declared the Democrats to be communists that it was high time somebody accused the right wing of fascism.

Whether it'll do her good, harm, or neither, I'm not sure. My guess is that it'll make no difference to anything.



ASPartOfMe
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25 Oct 2024, 12:22 pm

Former Trump officials offer support for John Kelly after ‘fascist’ remark

Quote:
More than a dozen former Trump administration officials signed on to an open letter backing comments from former White House chief of staff John Kelly in which he said former President Trump met the definition of a fascist and expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler.

“The revelations General Kelly brought forward are disturbing and shocking,” the officials wrote. “But because we know Trump and have worked for and alongside him, we were sadly not surprised by what General Kelly had to say. This is who Donald Trump is.”

The letter was signed by several prominent critics of Trump, including some who have publicly endorsed Vice President Harris in the 2024 election. It echoed many of the themes the Harris campaign has warned about in the closing stretch of the election, including that Trump wants “unchecked power” and that he would have fewer guardrails in a second term.

“Everyone should heed General Kelly’s warning. We have witnessed, up close and personal, how Donald Trump operates and what he is capable of,” the former officials wrote.

“The American people deserve a leader who won’t threaten to turn armed troops against them, won’t put his quest for power above their needs, and doesn’t idealize the likes of Adolf Hitler,” they continued. “Donald Trump demonstrates every day he is not capable of being commander in chief of this great nation.”

The signatories include former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin, former deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews, former communications director Anthony Scaramucci and former national security aide Olivia Troye.

Kelly, a retired four-star general, served as Trump’s chief of staff for roughly 16 months and has been quoted in previous stories about Trump disparaging military veterans. The New York Times on Tuesday published an interview in which Kelly said Trump met the definition of a fascist, preferred to rule like a dictator and recalled the former president expressing admiration for Hitler.



ToughDiamond wrote:
I found it refreshing that a Democrat has finally begun to fight fire with fire. The more "intense" Republicans have so often declared the Democrats to be communists that it was high time somebody accused the right wing of fascism.

Whether it'll do her good, harm, or neither, I'm not sure. My guess is that it'll make no difference to anything.


Unfortunately Fascist like Nazi has been overused so the accusation does not have the gravitas it should. If it were me running the Harris campaign I would have hyperfocused on the fact that Trump was held libel for sexual assault and the judge involved said most people would describe what Trump did as rape. Most Americans have not lived under true fascism. Practically all Americans have either been sexually assaulted/raped or know multiple people that has happened to.


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Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 25 Oct 2024, 12:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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25 Oct 2024, 12:28 pm

If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck and acts like a duck; it's probably a duck.



What Trump reminds me of is the duck in the South Park episode "You're Getting Old"



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25 Oct 2024, 2:46 pm

Can he be a fascist if he's too dumb to know what fascism is?
Call it what it is... He's a Trump



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26 Oct 2024, 12:51 am

I am inclined to believe that Trump is a fascist.


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ASPartOfMe
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26 Oct 2024, 4:47 am

How long have Democrats been calling Republicans Fascist? Since 1948 just three years after the end of WWII. When I was growing up they were always calling Nixon a fascist. At this point yelling “Nazi” or “Fascist” just creates the boy cried wolf effect.


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26 Oct 2024, 6:25 am

ASPartOfMe wrote:
How long have Democrats been calling Republicans Fascist? Since 1948 just three years after the end of WWII. When I was growing up they were always calling Nixon a fascist. At this point yelling “Nazi” or “Fascist” just creates the boy cried wolf effect.


You should have seen some of the things Reagan did and said as governor of CA.

Google "Mulford Act" and "Reagan Tanzanian diplomats".

If those things had been made public during his presidency and I was old enough, I would have defected to the Soviet Union.


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ASPartOfMe
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28 Oct 2024, 11:40 am

As an anti Trump Jewish person I find the seemingly universal assumption by anti Trumpers that yesterday’s Trump rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden was a repeat of the 1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden offensive.

- I am so anti-Trump that I am voting for Kamala Harris a person whom I shudder at the thought of actually becoming President.

- I am very disturbed that Trump is doing better in the polls and drew 100,000 or so people both inside and outside of the arena.

- Despite claims by Trumpers that there is nothing to see there because fascism did not happen during his administration I do expect that a Trump reelection will be a major blow to the American Republic and if not resulting in America becoming an authoritarian country will be a major step in that direction.

- I believe that January 6 was no mere riot but a failed insurrection if not worse.

- Trump’s opinions are about what is best for him financially and his ego. His world view if you can call it that are general ideas of what needs fixing. Hitler was also solipsistic and narcissistic but his ideas while the definition of evil were fairly coherent and detailed. Unlike ‘Art of the Deal’ , ‘Mein Kampf’ was not ghost written.

- For reasons listed below the Nazi comparisons are lazy but Trump by his language and who he has associated with makes these comparisons too easy.

The Nazis goal was to kill entire groups of people you know that word genocide that people have been using a lot lately. Trump with all his bigoted insults has never remotely called for that.

The Nazis goal was world conquest, Trump plays to isolationism.

The rally was peaceful, Nazi rallies often were anything but. I have watched a number of Trump rallies including yesterdays and the interaction between Trump and his fans is very 2020s with all the love talk. While there are obvious differences the “vibe” is sort of Woodstock like. Really. Up until they were coopted by the MAGA’s this is the sort of thing conservatives used to look down upon never mind 1930s Nazis. People still perplexed about Trump’s appeal need to look into this.

The MAGA’s are trying hard to get the Jewish vote. While as I have said before they do it often in offensive ways and I believe this is often Jew hate disguised as Jew love this is sentiment not only would no Nazi not be caught dead expressing, expressing that sentiment that might have ended up with that person actually being dead.

The constant lazy comparing of Trump to Hitler lessons the horror both of the Third Reich and the potential dangers of a second Trump administration.

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The 1939 Nazi rally occurred at a different location then yesterdays Trump rally. The Nazi rally occurred at third iteration of Madison Square Garden. The current iteration of Madison Square Garden is the fourth one.


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28 Oct 2024, 7:28 pm

In May this year, Trump accused Biden of running "A gestapo organisation". An outrageous claim. Perhaps this was ignored because it was so ludicrous, and Trump has succeeded in continually making outrageous claims which others would not get away with. In pointing that finger at Biden, (how he loves to fingerpoint!) there are three fingers pointing back at himself, or - in psychological terms, it may represent "projection" of Trump's intentions....

I think Trump's fascist tendencies are very real and very concerning. I also think whatever mayhem he is planning if he loses again, with help from Musk, will be far worse than and different from 2020 - and while most people would regard being defined as a "fascist" as an insult, maybe Trump perceives it as pleasing acknowledgment of his dictator potential, an ultimate aim to achieve maximum power and control.

Attacks on Harris seem to be regarded almost as a sport, a stark comparison to the reaction to Trump/Fascist issue.

Whatever, this is a perilous time for the USA. I have my own insulting label for Trump: the Great Deceiver.



ASPartOfMe
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03 Nov 2024, 4:55 am

Behind a Paywall
How relevant is the 'fascist' label in this election cycle? - Cathy Young for Newsday

Quote:
In the homestretch of this exhausting presidential campaign, the question of whether former President Donald Trump can be justly called a fascist, extensively debated during his 2016 campaign and his presidential term, has made a comeback.

Many Trump supporters claim that virtually every Republican president and presidential candidate, from Ronald Reagan onward, has been called a fascist or a Nazi or compared with Hitler. One can certainly find examples of such rhetoric, but generally from the far left, not from mainstream Democrats. In 2004, when conservatives slammed the liberal activist group MoveOn for posting two video clips comparing George W. Bush with Hitler among over 1,500 entries for an ad contest, the group quickly apologized.

In this case, John Kelly, the retired Marine general who served as head of homeland security and White House chief of staff in the Trump administration, has said that Trump, as president, expressed a wish for loyal and obedient generals like the ones Hitler had. Kelly has also noted that Trump met the definition of a fascist insofar as fascism is a “far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader.” Retired Army Gen. Mark Milley, Trump’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has called Trump a "fascist to the core."

There is little question that Trump, who routinely gushes over dictators like Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping and who repeatedly expressed impatience with the constraints on his power during his presidency, has a tyrant’s instincts. While it’s doubtful that he has anything like a well-developed ideology, his movement exploits vague grievances, blaming hardships and injustices — real or imagined — on foreigners and/or “the enemy within.” Those are classic strategies of authoritarian populist nationalism, an ideology whose more radical forms do amount to fascism. In that sense, calling Trump’s political persona fascist is a fairly accurate description.

I still think that for Harris to invoke the term “fascist” against Trump was probably misguided, if only because it helps normalize extreme rhetoric in American political discourse. But Republican complaints about such rhetoric are breathtakingly hypocritical, considering that Trump has repeatedly called Harris a “fascist” on the campaign trail — as well as a “Marxist” and a “communist.”

In a way, the fixation on labels like “fascist” gets us into a debate about what fascism is and distracts us from what we know about Trump: that he’s a narcissistic bully who peddles hate, has no respect for the law, and wants to use power for self-aggrandizement and vengeance. When asked whether Trump is a fascist, Harris should have simply stated those facts.


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Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 03 Nov 2024, 5:00 am, edited 2 times in total.

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03 Nov 2024, 4:56 am

well, he is a fascist so I can't blame her for saying that. As they say something like, if it quacks like a facist and it acts like a fascist than it is probably a fascist.


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03 Nov 2024, 4:58 am

Tim_Tex wrote:
Supposedly, Trump only mentions young, white female victims of crimes committed by said migrants. No mention of older, male, or non-white victims.

And his supporters fall for it every time. They think Latin Americans only come here in search of white p***y, not for better economic opportunities.

If a native-born white person commits an equally heinous crime, it's met with total silence from the MAGAs.


I thought Trump was the one after P**y.


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