By james art In interviews with The New York Times and The Atlantic published Tuesday, John Kelly warned that the Republican candidate fits the definition of a fascist and that while in office he suggested that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler “did some good things.” .
Ms. Harris repeated her increasingly dire warnings about Mr. Trump’s mental fitness and his intentions for the presidency.
“This is a window into who Donald Trump really is, from the people who know him best, from the people who have worked side by side with him in the Oval Office and in the situation room,” she told reporters outside the residence of the vice president in Washington.
The comments by Mr Kelly, the retired Marine general who worked for Mr Trump in the White House from 2017 to 2019, build on previous warnings from former senior Trump officials as the election enters its final two weeks .
Mr Kelly has long been critical of Mr Trump and previously accused him of calling veterans killed in combat “scumbags” and “losers”.
His new warnings came as Trump seeks a second term, vowing to dramatically expand the use of the military at home and suggesting he will use force to go after Americans he considers “enemies from within.”
“He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too,'” Mr. Kelly recalled to the Times. He said he usually ended the conversation by saying “nothing (Hitler) did, you could argue, was not good,” but that Mr. Trump occasionally brought the subject up again.
In his interview with The Atlantic, Mr. Kelly recalled that when Mr. Trump raised the idea of needing “German generals,” Mr. Kelly asked if he meant “Bismarck’s generals,” referring to Otto von Bismarck, the chancellor, who led the unification of Germany.
“Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals,” Mr Kelly recalled being asked, to which the former president replied: “Yes, yes, Hitler’s generals.”
Mr. Trump’s campaign denied the accounts. Campaign spokesman Stephen Cheung said Mr Kelly had “branded himself with these debunked stories he made up”.
Ms. Harris said on Wednesday that Mr. Trump admired Hitler’s generals because he “doesn’t want an army that is loyal to the constitution of the United States, he wants an army that is loyal to him. He wants an army that will be loyal to him personally”.
Polls show the race is tight in swing states, and both Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris are criss-crossing the country making their latest pitches to undecided voters.
Ms. Harris’s campaign spent a lot of time targeting independent voters, using the support of longtime Republicans like Liz Cheney and comments like Mr. Kelly’s to urge former Trump voters to reject his candidacy in November.
Ms. Harris’s campaign held a call with reporters on Tuesday to raise the voices of retired military personnel who highlighted how many of the staffers who worked with Mr. Trump now oppose his campaign.
“The people who know him best are the most opposed to him, to his presidency,” said retired Army Brigadier General Steve Anderson.
Before serving as Mr. Trump’s chief of staff, Mr. Kelly served as the former president’s homeland security secretary, where he led efforts to build a wall along the Mexican border.
Mr Kelly has also been at the forefront of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration policy, which has seen thousands of immigrant parents and their children separated at the southern border. These actions made him a villain to many on the left, including Ms. Harris.
In his Times interview, Mr. Kelly read aloud the definition of fascist, including that fascism is “a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader,” and concluded that Mr. Trump “certainly falls into general definition of a fascist, for sure”.
He added that Mr Trump often bristles at any attempt to limit his power and that he “would like to be” a dictator.
“He definitely prefers a dictatorial approach to government. I think he’d be happy to be just like in business – he could tell people to do things and they’d do them, and not really worry too much about what the laws were and whatnot.”