gotchanewsdaily.com 
CNN
—
Over and over, Vice President Kamala Harris argued at a CNN town hall Wednesday night that Republican rival Donald Trump is “unstable” and “unfit to serve.”
The Democratic nominee’s message in the closing weeks 2024 presidential race is squarely focused on warning Americans – particularly undecided independents and moderate Republicans – that Trump poses a threat to the nation’s core principles.
She pointed repeatedly to former senior military figures in Trump’s administration who have called him a fascist and claimed the former president spoke glowingly of the loyalty of Hitler’s Nazi generals. She also raised concern over his comments about turning the military against “enemies within.”
If Trump wins, Harris said, “He’s going to sit there, unstable and unhinged, plotting his revenge, plotting his retribution, creating an enemies list.”
Harris was as focused on putting the former Trump aides and military leaders’ comments in front of the Pennsylvania town hall crowd, and voters watching at home, as she was on detailing her own policy agenda.
Here are six takeaways from Harris’ CNN town hall:
Yes, Harris thinks Trump is a fascist
Harris was asked Wednesday night if she considers Trump a fascist.
“Yes, I do,” she said. But, she added, she doesn’t want voters to take her word for it.
Harris pointed to senior military leaders who served under Trump and have said the former president is a fascist – including the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, and Trump’s former White House chief of staff, retired Marine general John Kelly.
“I also believe that the people who know him best on this subject should be trusted,” Harris said.
The vice president’s condemnation of Trump as a threat to the United States’ founding principles is a window into how she is trying to win over the small number of undecided voters — including educated, suburban moderate Republicans and independents — in the race’s closing weeks. She is casting Trump as a threat to democracy, rather than focusing on her policy differences with the former president.
Harris said more than 400 members of Republican presidential administrations have endorsed her – and she named former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who has campaigned with her, and former Vice President Dick Cheney, specifically.
She said those Republicans’ support for her campaign is motivated by “a legitimate fear, based on Donald Trump’s words and actions, that he will not obey an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Harris distances herself from Biden, promises ‘a new generation of leadership’
Harris has faced repeated questions on the trail over how – and to what degree – she would break from Biden on policy. Mostly, she has brushed them off.
In one particularly awkward exchange, she told the hosts of ABC’s “The View,” who asked what she would’ve done differently from the president, “There is not a thing that comes to mind.”
On Wednesday night, though, Harris seemed more comfortable with the proposition and argued that, if she was elected, change would follow.
“My administration will not be a continuation of the Biden administration,” Harris said. “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.”
