Kamala Harris on Wednesday said Donald Trump was “increasingly unhinged” and called her US election rival’s reported praise for Adolf Hitler “incredibly dangerous,” as campaigning intensified ahead of the November 5 vote.
The Democrat’s fierce criticism came as she headed to must-win Pennsylvania to face voters’ questions in a town hall and as Trump campaigned in battleground Georgia.
With polls suggesting a tight election in its final stretch, Harris also unveiled plans for a “closing argument” rally on Tuesday at the Washington site where Trump addressed supporters before they stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Harris’s comments on Trump were provoked by revelations from his longest-serving chief of staff, John Kelly, who discussed the Republican’s praise for the Nazi dictator and his military in World War II.
Kelly told The New York Times that Trump remarked that “Hitler did some good things too” and that instead of the US military, he “wanted generals like Adolf Hitler had.”
With Trump’s rivals raising concerns about his willingness to honor American democracy, Kelly also repeated his warning that he believes his ex-boss “certainly falls into the general definition of fascist.”
Harris was quick to respond, delivering a statement outside her vice presidential residence in Washington.
“It’s deeply troubling and incredibly dangerous that Donald Trump would invoke Adolf Hitler, the man who is responsible for the deaths of six million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Americans,” she said.
Harris said “Donald Trump is increasingly unhinged and unstable, and in a second term, people like John Kelly would not be there to be the guardrails.”
Trump’s camp hit back, saying Harris is “desperate because she is flailing, and her campaign is in shambles.”
Obamas hit campaign trail
Harris, 60, touched down in Pennsylvania ahead of a Wednesday prime time CNN town hall-type meeting near Philadelphia.
She made a stop at the Famous 4th Street Delicatessen, where the Democrat fist-bumped employees and took selfies with patrons.
“Knock wood, God willing, we are going to win,” she said to cheers.
Pennsylvania is a coveted prize for the candidates, and Harris and Trump have made repeated appearances there and across other swing states that decide US elections.
The Harris camp has also confirmed that Michelle Obama will join her at an event Saturday in battleground Michigan, the former US first lady’s debut campaign stop with Harris.
It will follow Harris’s first campaign appearance with former president Barack Obama, on Thursday in Georgia’s largest city Atlanta, as part of a major Democratic get-out-the-vote effort.
Veteran rocker Bruce Springsteen is set to kick off the event with a concert.
Trump held his own town hall Wednesday in Georgia, which the 78-year-old Republican won in 2016 and then narrowly lost to President Joe Biden four years later.
“In many ways it’s sad because we’re down to 12 days,” he told cheering supporters. “We’ve been doing this together for nine years… It’s just been an amazing thing.”
Some 25 million Americans have already voted by mail or in person, reportedly a far higher number than the same period four years ago.
Harris’s sudden entry into the election campaign in late July shook the country, which was expecting a rematch between Biden and Trump, now a felon convicted on 34 charges of falsifying business records to hide hush-money payments to a porn star.
While Trump hammers home his promises of a migrant crackdown and economic good times after a period of high inflation, the Harris campaign has targeted his mental and physical fitness for the Oval Office while she courts moderate Republican voters.
(AFP)
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