Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) declined to echo former President Donald Trump‘s criticism of Vice President Kamala Harris as a “fascist” and “communist,” as Republicans scrutinize Harris for agreeing with former White House chief of staff John Kelly that Trump fits the definition of a “fascist.”
“Why don’t you ask me, do I think Kamala Harris is a fascist? No. Do I think she’s a communist? No,” Graham told ABC’s This Week on Sunday. “I think she’s the most liberal person ever to be dominated by a major party. I think she’s ineffective. I think she’s incompetent.”
When pressed on whether the complaints of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) were hypocritical, with the pair saying that Democratic rhetoric has encouraged two assassination attempts against Trump’s life, Graham repeated that he was not going to describe Harris as “a fascist.”
“She’s just incompetent, and incapable, and would be a lousy president,” he said.
Graham called his relationship with Kelly “good,” but argued that the former four-star Marine Corps general is “undermining” a tradition of generals being “apolitical” by having an “emotional” response.
“He’s entitled to his opinion; I just categorically reject it,” he said. “What happened to joy on the Democratic side? They went from joy to now Trump is Hitler. That’s desperation.”
In an interview that was published last week, Kelly, who was Trump’s chief of staff from 2017 to 2019, told the New York Times that Trump “certainly falls into the general definition of fascist” and that he once said Adolf Hitler “did some good things.”
The Kelly interview came one day after the Atlantic published a similar story about how Trump reportedly said, “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had.” The Trump campaign has denied that claim, quipping that Kelly has “a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Graham was also asked about former first lady Michelle Obama‘s campaign trail debut this weekend in Michigan, during which she made an impassioned plea for black men to support Harris, particularly to protect abortion access.
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“Michelle Obama’s a good person,” the senator said. “She’s very articulate. But every time the Obamas pick the Democratic nominee, we win. You know, [former President Barack] Obama picked [one-time Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton. We beat her. They threw [President Joe] Biden over for Harris.”
“I think Trump’s going to beat Harris simply because she’s had a lot of time now to convince people she’ll put the country back on the right track, and all the wrong track numbers are holding,” he added. “When you ask people, who do you trust most to fix the problems you care most about, it’s Trump, not her.”