'Admires dictators': Harris continues comparing Trump to Hitler during battleground state town hall
Vice President Kamala Harris joined CNN in Pennsylvania for a town hall with undecided voters on Wednesday, where the Democratic presidential nominee doubled down on her rhetoric comparing former President Donald Trump to Nazi Germany dictator Adolf Hitler.
"If the president of the United States, the commander in chief, is saying to his generals, in essence, 'Why can't you be more like Hitler's generals?' Anderson, come on. This is a serious, serious issue. And we know who he is. He admires dictators, sending love letters back and forth with Kim Jong-Un," Harris said of Trump on Wednesday evening in a town hall moderated by CNN's Anderson Cooper.
Earlier Wednesday, former Trump administration chief of staff John Kelly claimed to the media that Trump praised "Hitler's generals" for their loyalty. Harris posted on X that Trump is "out for unchecked power" before also comparing Trump to the Nazi dictator.
"Donald Trump is out for unchecked power. He wants a military like Adolf Hitler had, who will be loyal to him, not our Constitution," Harris posted to X earlier Wednesday. "He is unhinged, unstable, and given a second term, there would be no one to stop him from pursuing his worst impulses."
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Cooper pressed Harris about the rhetoric in his first question to the Democratic nominee on Wednesday evening, sparking Harris to double down and also say she believes that Trump is a "fascist."
"You quoted General Milley calling Donald Trump a fascist. You, yourself, have not used that word to describe him. Let me ask you tonight, do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?" Cooper asked Harris towards the start of the town hall.
"Yes, I do. Yes, I do," Harris responded.
Harris' comments come after Trump survived two assassination attempts on his life since July. Trump has blamed the attacks on heated rhetoric from Democrats.
Harris spoke directly to the undecided battleground state voters during the live town hall Wednesday, including telling one voter that if she wins on Nov. 5, her administration will be different than Biden's.
"Considering you've been in the position of vice president for the past four years under the Biden administration, how can we expect you to deviate from the direction of that administration compared to your own? How can we differentiate your policy and your beliefs from that of Biden's?" the audience member asked Harris.
Harris, who has previously said while on the campaign trail that she couldn't think of anything she would have done differently from Biden, said Wednesday that her administration would be different than Biden's leadership.
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"First of all, my administration will not be a continuation of the Biden administration. I bring to this role my own ideas and my own experience. I represent a new generation of leadership on a number of issues, and believe that we have to actually take new approaches," Harris said.
"For example, what we talked about in terms of housing. My experience that leads to that priority, includes what I did to take on the big banks around the foreclosure crisis. When I brought billions of dollars to homeowners that were the subject of predatory lending. I know what homeownership means to the American people, not to mention what it meant to my mother, who worked very hard and saved up, so that by the time I was a teenager, she was able to buy our first home."
The town hall event kicked off at 9 pm on Wednesday from Chester Township, which is located less than 20 miles outside of Philadelphia. The event was held after CNN proposed holding a third presidential debate -- including Biden's first debate before dropping out of the race -- on Oct. 23. Harris accepted the invite and Trump declined, leading to the town hall.
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Harris was also pressed about her border and immigration policies, including a bipartisan bill that would provide funding for a border wall that Harris previously lambasted as a "stupid" idea when promoted by Trump during his administration.
"Let's talk about this compromise bill that you want to pass if you are elected. You said that's going to be a priority. It includes $650 million in funding for the border wall. That's something Republicans wanted, that was part of the compromise. Under Donald Trump, you criticized the wall more than 50 times. You called it ‘stupid, useless, and a medieval vanity project.’ Is a border wall stupid?," Cooper asked Harris.
"Let's talk about Donald Trump and that border wall," Harris said while laughing. "So remember, Donald Trump said Mexico would pay for it. Come on, they didn't. How much of that wall did he build? I think the last number I saw was about 2%. And then when it came time for him to do a photo op, you know, where he did it? In the part of the wall that President Obama built."
"But you agreed to a bill that would earmark $650 million to continue building that wall," Cooper pressed.
"I pledge that I am going to bring forward that bipartisan bill to further strengthen and secure our border. Yes, I am, and I'm going to work across the aisle to pass a comprehensive bill that deals with a broken immigration system," Harris responded.
"We need a president who is grounded in common sense and practical outcomes, like, let's just fix this thing. Let's just fix it. Why is there any ideological perspective on this? Let's just fix the problem," she continued, adding that non-citizens need to "earn" citizenship.
"So you don't think it's stupid anymore?" Cooper continued.
"I think what he did and how he did it was, did not make much sense because he actually didn't do much of anything. I just talked about that wall, right? We just talked about it. He didn't actually do much of anything," she responded.
Pennsylvania is a key state again this election, with both Harris and Trump vying to win the state to clear the path to an overall victory. Trump narrowly won the state in his successful 2016 election against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, while Biden declared victory in the Keystone State in the 2020 election.
Harris leaned into her support of abortion during the town hall, claiming that red state abortion policies have led to women's deaths. The Harris campaign and Democrats have previously claimed that at least two women in Georgia died due to "restrictive" abortion laws, with OB-GYNs subsequently criticizing the narrative as a misleading story pushed by the media.
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"Trump abortion bans, some that make no exception, even for rape or incest. One of the areas I specialized in as a prosecutor was crimes against women and children. The idea you would tell a survivor of a violation to their body that they have no right to make a decision about what happens to their body next. This is what's happening in our country. You all may have heard the stories. Women have died. Women have died because of these laws and the suffering," Harris said.
Harris called for the end of the filibuster last month in an effort to pass a law restoring abortion access nationwide, which was slammed by lawmakers and conservatives as an attack on democracy. The filibuster is a Senate rule that allows a minority to block legislation pending a supermajority vote, so ending it would make it easier to pass laws related to abortion rights.
Cooper pressed Harris on the matter Wednesday, asking: "You've talked about codifying Roe v Wade. That would require 60 votes in the Senate, a majority of the House. That's a big, that's a big leap. We don't have that yet. If that's not possible to codify it in the House, what do you do?"
Harris responded that it was time to revisit the filibuster.
"I think we need to take a look at the filibuster, to be honest with you. But the reality of it is this, let's talk about how we got here. When Donald Trump was president, he hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v Wade," she said. "And they did as he intended. And now, in 20 states, we have abortion bans."
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Harris' appearance unfolded as the Wall Street Journal published a new poll finding Trump in the lead nationally, at 47% support to Harris' 45%.