Former President Trump continued his intense rhetoric throughout the 2024 presidential election, saying it was “guaranteed” that Vice President Harris would send the United States into World War III if she were elected president.
At a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, Trump claimed that Harris would be incompetent in dealing with leaders of other countries, such as Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Making her president is gambling with the lives of millions of people,” he said. “She’s going to plunge us into World War III because she’s too incompetent for the job.”
“People’s sons and daughters will be drafted to fight in a war in a country they have never heard of,” Trump added. Later in his speech, Trump pledged that the United States would avoid World War III, even though it “has never been that close.”
Trump also repeated past claims that conflicts such as the one resulting from Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, would not have occurred if he had been president.
The former president’s comments come after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) released a letter on Friday criticizing Harris for calling Trump a “fascist.” . Harris.
Johnson and McConnell said: “The Democratic presidential candidate has only fanned the flames beneath a simmering cauldron of political hostility. Her latest and most reckless appeal to the darkest evils of the 20th century dares to boil over.”
“Bringing political opponents ‘fascists’ risks unleashing yet another assassin to try to rob voters of their choice before Election Day,” they said, citing two assassination attempts on Trump earlier this year.
Harris has not previously used the word fascist to describe Trump, but said Wednesday during a CNN town hall she attended that she believes he is one. In response to a question about former President Trump’s Chief of Staff John Kelly, he responded, “Trump definitely falls under the general definition of a fascist.”
Since the first assassination attempt on Trump in July, lawmakers from both parties have called for a reduction in political rhetoric to avoid a politically charged environment that could lead to incidents like this. But both candidates’ language soon returned to mostly normal.
