In a joint statement, Mitch McConnell and Mike Johnson criticized Kamala Harris for calling Donald Trump a ‘fascist,’ an insult the former president has used against her.
John Kelly, who once served as chief of staff to Donald Trump, rocked the political world this week when he said in an interview that his former boss fit the definition of a fascist and warned about the possibilities of a second Trump term. “Certainly the former president is in the far-right area, he’s certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators — he has said that. So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure,” he told the New York Times.
The retired four-star Marine general’s words quickly took on a new life, being repurposed into ads from the Kamala Harris campaign and making it into the vice-president’s remarks on the trail. During a CNN town hall Wednesday, Harris said that voters “care about our democracy and not having a president of the United States who admires dictators and is a fascist.”
On Friday, Harris’s embrace of Kelly’s criticism received pushback from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Mike Johnson, who issued a rare joint statement denouncing her rhetoric.
