Vice President Kamala Harris said Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump “wants to be a dictator” as she accepted the Democratic presidential nomination in Chicago on Thursday night.
“I will not court tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong Un who support Trump,” Harris said.
“Because they know he can be easily manipulated through flattery and favors,” the vice president said.
“They know Trump won’t hold dictators accountable — because he wants to be a dictator,” Harris said of her Republican opponents.
“As president, I will never waver in defending America’s security and ideals.”
Shortly after Harris made those remarks, Trump responded to her criticism in a social media post.
“The tyrants are laughing at her. She is weak and incompetent. For three and a half years, she has done nothing but make them strong, rich and powerful!” Trump wrote in the “Truth Society”.
Harris’ sharp criticism of Trump’s admiration for autocrats and autocrats hostile to U.S. interests is well-documented, building on themes established earlier in the evening.
The speaker list for Thursday’s convention includes six veterans of the U.S. military and intelligence communities. One by one, they portrayed Trump as a threat to national security and Harris as a staunch defender of American ideals.
“Tonight I want to talk about national security,” said Rep. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, the Democratic candidate for her state’s Senate seat this fall.
“Because the choice in November is stark: America withdraws from the world, or leads the world. Trump wants to take us backwards,” said Slotkin, a former CIA analyst who visited Iraq three times to work with the military. .
U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) speaks during the final day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on August 22, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images
“He admired dictators, viewed our friends as adversaries, and viewed our adversaries as friends.”
“Don’t give in to the impostors who wrap themselves in the flag but spit on the freedom it represents,” she said, drawing loud applause.
“As president, Trump skipped intelligence briefings,” said Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., a former U.S. Navy fighter pilot and astronaut.
“He was too busy cozying up to dictators and dreaming of becoming a dictator himself,” Kelly said. “Trump thinks Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice are ‘fools’ and ‘losers.’ If we fall for that again and make him commander in chief, then we will be the only fools.”
Kelly also said that the threats facing the United States are too serious to risk allowing Trump, who is “ridiculed by the whole world,” to be re-elected in the White House.
Former Defense Secretary and CIA Director Leon Panetta also issued a warning.
“Trump will abandon our allies and isolate the United States,” he said. “We tried this in the 1930s. It was stupid and dangerous then. It’s stupid and dangerous now.”
He also quoted former Republican President Ronald Reagan: “Isolationism has never been, and never will be, an acceptable response to a tyrannical government.”
Unlike Reagan, “Trump tells tyrants like Putin that they can ‘do whatever they want.'”
“Donald Trump doesn’t understand the world. He doesn’t understand the service and sacrifice of our military,” Panetta said.
“Our fallen veterans are not fools. They are not losers. They are heroes.”
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