Vice President Kamala Harris refused Friday to take back her claim that former President Donald Trump is a direct “threat” to American democracy and “unfit to serve,” hours after Republican leaders of the House and Senate begged her to “stop escalating” her rhetoric.
Harris, 60, told a reporter ahead of a rally in Houston that former Trump aides like retired Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly “have been very clear about the danger and the threat that Donald Trump poses to America and the fact that he is unfit to serve.”
“And the American people deserve to hear that and know about that so they can make a decision based on what’s in the best interest of themselves and their families,” she said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called out Harris earlier Friday for “escalating” threats against Trump, 78, by labeling him a “fascist” and promoting claims that he is like Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
“Listen, we all must speak out against any form of political violence, and I’m very clear about that,” Harris also told the reporter when asked for a response to Johnson (R-La.) and McConnell (R-Ky.).
“No one should be the subject of political violence, much less political violence — but the American people deserve to be presented with facts and the truth.”
“Vice President Harris may want the American people to entrust her with the sacred duty of executive authority. But first, she must abandon the base and irresponsible rhetoric that endangers both American lives and institutions,” Johnson (R-La.) and McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a rare joint statement.
“We have both been briefed on the ongoing and persistent threats to former President Donald Trump by adversaries to the United States, and we call on the Vice President to take these threats seriously, stop escalating the threat environment, and help ensure President Trump has the necessary resources to be protected from those threats.”
Asked Wednesday night during a CNN town hall in Pennsylvania whether Trump was a “fascist,” Harris nodded her head and replied: “Yes, I do. Yes, I do.”
The veep and her campaign have also promoted claims made this week by former Trump White House chief of staff John Kelly that the 45th president expressed admiration for Hitler and his generals.
The heightened rhetoric followed a summer of political violence, which saw the former president shot in the ear by a would-be assassin at a Pennsylvania campaign rally and targeted by another while golfing at his eponymous West Palm Beach, Fla., club.
“This summer, after the first attempted assassination of a presidential candidate in more than a century, President Biden insisted that ‘we can’t allow this violence to be normalized,’” said Johnson and McConnell. “In September, after President Trump escaped yet another close call, Vice President Harris acknowledged that ‘we all must do our part to ensure that this incident does not lead to more violence.’”
“These words have proven hollow. In the weeks since that second sobering reminder, the Democratic nominee for President of the United States has only fanned the flames beneath a boiling cauldron of political animus,” they added. “Her most recent and most reckless invocations of the darkest evil of the 20th century seem to dare it to boil over. The Vice President’s words more closely resemble those of President Trump’s second would-be assassin than her own earlier appeal to civility.”
Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, took aim at Trump during a campaign event in Butler, Pa., July 13 and fired eight rounds before being shot dead by Secret Service counter-snipers.
One bullet grazed the former president’s right ear before he hit the deck and was later rushed offstage by his security detail.
Another bullet took the life of volunteer fireman Corey Comperatore, 50, while two others critically wounded David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74.
Crooks’ motives remain unclear, whereas the second would-be assassin, Ryan Wesley Routh, put his down in writing in a letter later released by federal prosecutors.
“This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you,” the letter read.
“I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job,” the 58-year-old promised.
“The man who was caught waiting in ambush in Florida left others with a chilling call to arms: ‘It is up to you now to finish the job,’” the Republican congressional leaders reiterated in their letter. “Labeling a political opponent as a ‘fascist,’ risks inviting yet another would-be assassin to try robbing voters of their choice before Election Day.”
The recent rhetoric followed earlier fears voiced by Harris and other Democrats about Trump being a “threat to democracy” — a line that the 45th president said was responsible for Routh’s attempt to take his life.
“He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it,” the Republican nominee told Fox News the day after the gunman’s arrest Sept. 15.
“Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out.”
The 45th president was also targeted in a potential third assassination attempt by a suspected Iranian agent, who is accused of plotting to hire hitmen to kill Trump in New York City in August or early September.
Last year, the Secret Service was also made aware of another plan to take out Trump via a ‘possible drone attack’.
“Big threats on my life by Iran. The entire U.S. [sic] Military is watching and waiting,” Trump posted on Truth Social last month.
The Republican’s security detail has since been enhanced by the Secret Service to be commensurate with that of President Biden’s, the acting director of the protective agency, Ronald Rowe, confirmed last month.
