Fox News erupted in outrage over Vice President Kamala Harris labeling former President Donald Trump as “fascist,” following the release of audio featuring General John Kelly—Trump’s former Chief of Staff—who articulated why he believes Trump embodies fascism.
This theme has permeated nearly every Fox News segment since Harris’s press conference. A notable moment occurred during an Outnumbered segment led by former Trump Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, where viewers were shown a clip of Harris asserting, “And it is clear from John Kelly’s words that Donald Trump is someone who, I quote, certainly falls into the general definition of fascist who vowed to be a dictator on day one and vowed to use the military as his personal militia to carry out his personal and political vendettas.”
What did John Kelly say? The decorated Marine General and former DHS Secretary shared his thoughts with New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt, stating, “Well, 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. So certainly, in my experience, those are the kinds of things that he thinks would work better in terms of running America.”
Instead of addressing Kelly’s insights, McEnany deflected blame onto “the liberal media,” showcasing a series of headlines that labeled Trump as “fascist,” “authoritarian,” and even “Hitler-loving.” “Wow. And that’s just a few of them,” she remarked.
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Co-host Emily Compagna added to the criticism, claiming, “I truly don’t think Kamala Harris could define fascism,” and ironically challenged her ability to distinguish between disinformation and misinformation.
The appropriateness of using the term “fascist” in political discourse is certainly worthy of discussion. However, the claim that only Harris and the Democrats engage in this alleged dangerous rhetoric is rather disingenuous.
Long before Harris made her statements, Trump had already labeled her with similar terms.
The video below shows Trump declaring, “It’s a choice between communism and freedom,” and explicitly stating, “This is communist, this is Marxist, this is fascist.”
At various rallies, he referred to Harris as “radical left Marxist” and called her “Comrade Kamala Harris,” suggesting that her victory would lead to a “full-blown banana republic ruled by anarchy and tyranny.”
“If comrade Kamala Harris gets four more years, you will be living [in] a full-blown banana republic ruled by an anarchy and a tyranny… They’re scum. They’re scum and they want to take down our country. They are absolute garbage,” Trump charged.
Watch:
JD Vance told crowd that calling your election opponent “fascist” leads to violence.
This is a montage of Trump lying that Kamala Harris “Is a communist, is a Marxist, and is a fascist.”
According to JD Vance, Trump is calling for the assassination of Kamala Harris. pic.twitter.com/jnipaUs3ud
— LongTime🤓FirstTime👨💻 (@LongTimeHistory) September 19, 2024
On Jan. 6, 2021, Trump infamously told rally-goers in Washington, D.C. that if Congress certified Biden’s election victory that day, America as they knew would be over and told his supporters “if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” while telling the crowd, “You have to show strength.”
