Kamala Harris turns to the ghosts of Trump’s presidency to scare voters away from a second term

Democrats are going all-out to promote former White House chief of staff John Kelly’s allegations that Donald Trump once pined for “the kind of general that Hitler had” and said that “Hitler did some good things, too.”

“It is deeply troubling and incredibly dangerous that Donald Trump would invoke Adolf Hitler, the man who is responsible for the deaths of six million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Americans,” Kamala Harris said on Wednesday, calling the story “a window into who Donald Trump really is, from the people who know him best.”

At a CNN town hall later that evening, she told voters that Kelly’s words were “a 911 call to the American people” warning them that the experienced hands who previously would “restrain” Trump would no longer be there to temper his worst instincts. Asked whether she agreed with Kelly’s assertion that Trump was “fascist,” she replied, “Yes, I do.”

In response to Harris’ remarks, Trump communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement that she is peddling “outright lies and falsehoods.” Trump also slammed Kelly on Truth Social as a “total degenerate” who “made up a story.”

Kelly’s claims, which he aired in an interview with The New York Times and a story in The Atlantic, fit into the Harris campaign’s broader closing message for voters, which has relied on Republican politicians, former Trump aides, and the former president’s own words to argue that a second Trump term would be more dangerous for the country than his first.

Team Harris believes it’s a winning approach. According to Blueprint, a Democratic strategy group, Harris’ best-testing closing argument against Trump emphasizes “his lack of support from his former cabinet and numerous Republicans.” The campaign’s second-most aired ad this month, according to CNN? A TV spot called “The Best People,” featuring multiple former Trump administration officials issuing sharp warnings against him. Harris has barnstormed swing states with former Congresswoman Liz Cheney and other GOP dissidents to make the case that even Republican voters should put “country over party” and back her campaign.

“I think it is breaking through, and I think it should break through, because the former president’s statements have been getting more and more unhinged,” Kelly’s former senior counselor and retired Army Reserve Colonel Kevin Carroll told reporters on a Harris campaign press call Wednesday.

That message was bolstered, Carroll added, coming from former Trump officials with a reputation for honesty and integrity — the types of people who were once used by Trump supporters to reassure Republican skeptics when they were in his administration.

“I question if it converts anybody, but is it effective at perhaps keeping reluctant Republicans home? Maybe it is,” Marc Short, who was chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, told Semafor. “In this kind of race, when the margins are that narrow, then everything matters, even if it’s just marginal.”

As for Team Trump? They’re not convinced — nor do they seem all that worried that Kelly’s story is the “October surprise” that the Harris campaign and Democratic allies have described it as. Voters have heard plenty of allegations tying Trump to extreme rhetoric before. One of Trump’s senior advisors told Semafor that the Democrats had “surrendered on the issues people are voting on — her position on the border, higher taxes and rising inflation.”

“You’re waiting for her [Harris] and hoping that she can convince you that she has a plan to address whatever it is that you are — whether it’s the immigration, the economy — that you can win you over, and she hasn’t done it yet,” one former senior Trump campaign official said. “All of these people, he’s been fighting with them for years, and so when they suddenly come out and say something that’s really not that different, not that new, I just don’t think it cuts through the clutter.”