Trump campaign doubles down in final hours of election dash

(WASHINGTON) — John Kelly, a former four-star Marine general and former chief of staff to former President Donald Trump, hammered his old boss in a stunningly public fashion on Tuesday — just two weeks before Election Day.

Kelly, who had previously refrained from discussing his time in the White House so openly, said in expansive interviews with The New York Times that Trump’s discussion of using the military against the “enemy within” — who, in Trump’s words included Democratic foes — pushed him to come forward.

“And I think this issue of using the military on — to go after — American citizens is one of those things I think is a very, very bad thing — even to say it for political purposes to get elected — I think it’s a very, very bad thing, let alone actually doing it,” Kelly said.

The former general held nothing back, arguing that Trump could fit the bill of a “fascist.”

“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,” he told The Times.

“So, certainly, in my experience, those are the kinds of things that he thinks would work better in terms of running America,” he added.

Kelly went on to explain that Trump had said he wanted generals like those that Adolf Hitler had, a comment that Kelly found shocking and told the former president not to repeat.

The remarks from Kelly, while astounding coming from a veteran who attained such a high ranking in uniform, is just the latest to come from a former senior official in Trump’s administration.

Mark Milley, a retired Army general and former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump, told journalist Bob Woodward that Trump is a “fascist to the core.”

“He is the most dangerous person ever. I had suspicions when I talked to you about his mental decline and so forth, but now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is now the most dangerous person to this country,” he said.

Mark Esper, Trump’s former defense secretary, said earlier this month that he feared Trump would use the military against his domestic critics and that he would likely have fewer guardrails in a hypothetical second term.

“My sense is his inclination is to use the military in these situations whereas my view is that’s a bad role for the military. It should only be law enforcement taking those actions,” Esper said on CNN.

“I think President Trump has learned, the key is getting people around you who will do your bidding, who will not push back, who will implement what you want to do. And I think he’s talked about that, his acolytes have talked about that, and I think loyalty will be the first litmus test,” he added.

Trump throughout his tenure has also praised authoritarians, including boasting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s intelligence, calling North Korean strongman Kim Jong Un “tough” and heaping praise on Hungarian leader Viktor Orban.

Trump’s campaign has hit back at the former officials, including going after Kelly on Tuesday.

“John Kelly has totally beclowned himself with these debunked stories he has fabricated because he failed to serve his President well while working as Chief of Staff and currently suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome,” spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement.

“President Trump has always honored the service and sacrifice of all of our military men and women, whereas Kamala Harris has completely disrespected the families of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, including the Abbey Gate 13,” he added, referencing the 13 service members killed during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The latest eye-popping comments from Kelly come as early voting is already underway and Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris fight for a small but significant slice of undecided voters.

The Harris campaign on Wednesday morning seized on Kelly’s comments, rolling out Republican former military leaders to both hammer Trump and underscore the seriousness of Kelly’s surprisingly public remarks.

“I had the honor of working aside him, and I know him speaking out this way was no small step for him,” said Kevin Carroll, who served as senior counsel to Kelly when he was Homeland Security secretary under Trump.

Brig. Gen. Steve Anderson mocked the fact that Trump “couldn’t qualify to be in the military — he has 34 felony convictions — so, how can we have the commander-in-chief be in charge of a military that he couldn’t possibly join?”

Harris’ campaign warned that voters should listen to those who have worked alongside Trump while he was president.

“The people who know him best are telling us Trump is unhinged and pursuing unchecked power that would put us all at risk. We should all listen,” Harris campaign spokesperson Ian Sams said in a statement.

However, national debate over Trump’s character has raged largely unabated since 2015, leaving Republicans skeptical the latest comments will make an impact with voters.

GOP pollster Robert Blizzard said it’s “hard to believe this is going to be the ‘ah, gotcha now’ moment for Democrats.”

“I have a difficult time believing there is a single voter that doesn’t have a hard and fast opinion on Donald Trump. They’ve come to that conclusion themselves, and I can’t imagine these people, who the average voter has never heard of, change that opinion,” added a former senior Trump administration official.

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(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris released a report with details about her health and medical history on Saturday, as the Harris team tries to place former President Donald Trump’s health and advanced age under new scrutiny.

Harris “remains in excellent health,” her physician, Dr. Joshua Simmons, said in a letter on Saturday. “She possesses the physical and mental resilience required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief.”

The doctor pointed to seasonal allergies and hives (urticaria) as a “notable” part of her health history. He also listed a number of over-the-counter medications used to improve her symptoms, which he said have never been “severe.”

Simmons details Harris’ most recent physical exam, which was in April 2024. He said the results were “unremarkable.” The doctor also said he found her routine bloodwork was “unremarkable,” though he noted that her Vitamin D levels were “in the insufficient range.”

Simmons also noted that the vice president has a family history of colon cancer. He detailed no other personal history of a number of conditions.

A senior Harris aide said they see the release of the vice president’s medical report as an opening to highlight how little is known about the health of 78-year-old Trump.

The most comprehensive details that are known of Trump’s health care are from a nearly 7-year-old report from his physician at the time following a physical exam. In that report, it was learned Trump had high cholesterol, was overweight and had rosacea, a benign skin disease.

Trump refused to release his medical records during his first campaign in 2016, and despite promising multiple times to release his medical records in this race, he’s not done so yet.

In response to ABC News’ requests concerning Trump’s medical records, his campaign is pointing to previous letters released by former White House physician Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, and Trump’s personal physician, Dr. Bruce Aronwald.

Jackson’s letters, released in July after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, describe in detail the former president’s ear injury but doesn’t detail Trump’s health conditions. In one of the two letters, Jackson wrote that he reviewed Trump’s medical records from Butler Memorial Hospital and said he was rapidly recovering from the injury.

Aronwald’s letter, released in November last year, said he conducted “several comprehensive examinations” and reported that his “overall health is excellent,” without providing any details.

“President Trump has voluntarily released updates from his personal physician, as well as detailed reports from Dr. Ronny Jackson who treated him after the first assassination attempt,” Trump campaign Communications Director Steven Cheung said. “All have concluded he is in perfect and excellent health to be Commander in Chief.”

Cheung added that Trump “has maintained an extremely busy and active campaign schedule unlike any other in political history, whereas Kamala Harris has been unable to keep up with the demands of campaigning and reveals on a daily basis she is wholly unqualified to be President of the United States.”

Not much was known about Harris’ health prior to this new report, either.

For example, in contrast to President Joe Biden, whose physician has issued memos following his routine physicals, no such reports have been made available for the vice president. Only her annual check-up in 2021 was announced by the White House, but results from that visit were not released.

The White House had also previously announced that Harris tested positive for COVID-19 in April 2022, for which she was treated with the drug Paxlovid.

Ahead of the release of Harris’ medical report, ABC News had also inquired about the records for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Harris and Trump’s running mates, respectively.

This new move by Harris is a stark illustration of how the political baggage of advanced age has flipped.

Before he dropped out of the race for a second term, Biden’s age was an effortless battering ram for Trump and Republicans. The former president would attack his successor, America’s oldest president, as “sleepy Joe” “sick” and “weak.” But now it’s Harris, who is approximately two decades Trump’s junior, and her allies taking advantage of their opponent’s age.

Walz described Trump’s debate performance as “a nearly 80-year-old man shaking his fist at clouds;” former President Bill Clinton joked during his Democratic National Convention speech, “Two days ago I turned 78… and the only personal vanity I want to assert is I’m still younger than Donald Trump.”

Hours before the vice-presidential debate earlier this month, the Harris campaign rolled out a new ad taking aim at Trump, who, if he wins, would be the oldest person elected president, through Vance.

“He’s not just weird or dangerous,” a narrator says of Vance, “he could be a heartbeat away from the Oval Office.” The ad ends with clips of the former president appearing to slur his words.

ABC News’ Katherine Faulders, Soorin Kim, Isabella Murray, Hannah Demissie, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.

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(HOUSTON) –With only a little more than a week until Election Day, Vice President Kamala Harris is stopping in Houston on Friday where she will give a speech on abortion rights with some help from megastar singer, Beyoncé, according to sources familiar with the planning.

Although Texas seems to be a strange choice in the final stretch before the election when both candidates target key battleground states, the campaign argues it was chosen because of the state’s restrictive abortion ban, which bans abortion in almost all circumstances. It also allows private citizens to sue abortion providers and those who assist patients who are seeking an abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy.

Abortion remains a rallying issue among Democrats who were able to stave off a “red wave” during the 2022 midterms by centering their messages around it. The campaign claims reproductive freedom is still one of the top issues among undecided voters, and they consider Texas to be “ground zero.”

The campaign said it plans on featuring powerful stories from several women whose lives have been put at risk over these abortions bans. That includes Ondrea, a Texas woman who first shared her story in a new Harris campaign ad out this week. Ondrea was pregnant in the fall of 2022, but when her water broke at 16 weeks, she was told her daughter wouldn’t survive. She was not offered necessary medical care — an abortion, the ad says. The ad shows the wound and scars Ondrea says she incurred after undergoing a six-hour emergency surgery — during which doctors cut her open from her breast to her pelvis in order to save her life.

On Friday, Harris said the abortion ban in Texas will be central to the event.

“It is a very important state, and we are here to really highlight that, sadly, the elected leaders of Texas, a lot of them have made Texas ground zero in this fundamental fight for the freedom of women to make decisions about their own body. So, tonight we will be discussing the impact of that, not only to the women and their families, but to people around the country because of Trump abortion bans,” she said.

“And I do believe it is critically important to acknowledge that this is not just a political debate, this is not just some theoretical concept. Real harm has occurred in our country, a real suffering has occurred. People have died,” she added.

Harris’ rally will also feature Houston native, Beyoncé. Although the popular “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer has yet to officially endorse Harris, the vice president uses Beyoncé song “Freedom” as her walk-out song, which is often woven into her messaging.

Also in attendance will be famous folk singer Willie Nelson, another Texas native, along with Beyoncé’s mom, Tina Knowles, who has campaigned for Harris in the past.

It is not yet clear if Beyonce and Nelson will perform.

Roughly two hours away, former President Trump will also be in Texas in Austin where he will speak on immigration before interviewing with influential podcaster Joe Rogan who has the most-listened-to podcast in the United States.

Harris will go on to Michigan on Saturday where she will campaign with former first lady Michelle Obama for the first time after holding her first joint rally with former President Barack Obama at a get-out-the-vote rally in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday.

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