Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, said he disagreed with Donald Trump’s statement that Kamala Harris is a “fascist.”
Graham appeared on ABC News’s This Week on Sunday and criticized John Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff, after he said the former president meets the definition of a “fascist.”
However, Graham didn’t defend Trump entirely, and even said he disagreed with the former president’s belief that Harris is both a fascist and communist. ABC News’s Jonathan Karl played a montage of Trump calling Harris a fascist at multiple rallies this summer, prompting Graham to react.
“Why don‘t you ask me, ’Do I think Kamala Harris is a fascist?’ No. Do I think she‘s a communist? No,” Graham said in response to the video. “I think she‘s the most liberal person to ever be dominated by a major party. I think she‘s ineffective, I think she’s incompetent.”
Graham also told Karl he rejects Kelly’s “opinion” on Trump.
"He’s entitled to his opinion, I just categorically reject it,” Graham told Karl. “He was a strong leader on the things that matter the most…He’s not a fascist. He’s not Hitler."
“Donald Trump is the most popular politician from the West because he stood by the state of Israel,” he added. “Hitler wanted to kill all the Jews!”
Kelly made the comment to The New York Times last week, while warning about the consequences of a second Trump presidency.
“Looking at the definition of fascism: It’s a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy,” Kelly said.
At the same time, The Atlantic reported that two sources have claimed Trump said he wants “the kind of generals that Hitler had” during a private conversation in the White House.
However, the Trump campaign has denied this report.
“This is absolutely false, President Trump never said this,” campaign spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer previously told The Independent.
Harris addressed Kelly’s remarks last week in a speech at the Naval Observatory in Washington, DC. The vice president warned that Trump is “increasingly unhinged and unstable,” and that in a second term, there would be fewer people “to rein him in.”
“Donald Trump said that because he does not want a military that is loyal to the United States Constitution. He wants a military that is loyal to him,” Harris said. “He wants a military who will be loyal to him, personally, one that will obey his orders even when he tells them to break the law or abandon their oath to the Constitution of the United States.”
