NBC host Chuck Todd asked Vice President Kamala Harris to define a “semi-fascist” Sunday, following President Joe Biden’s previous attack on “MAGA Republicans.”
Biden called the philosophy of former President Donald Trump and “MAGA [Make America Great Again] Republicans” “semi-fascism” at an Aug. 26 Democratic fundraiser in Maryland. Todd asked the vice president for the definition of a “semi-fascist.”
“Listen, I think that when we … let’s not get caught up in politicizing the fact that most people in America know that it is not helpful to our country when we have people who are denying elections or trying to obstruct the outcome of an election where the largest number of people in our country voted for the President of the United States, and when we look at where we are, I think we have to admit that there are attacks from within … and we need to take it seriously, and we need to stand up together, all of us, and think of this not through [a] partisan lens, but as Americans,” Harris said.
Todd read an excerpt from the president’s inaugural address promising to unite the country, stating “politics need not be a raging fire destroying everything in its path.” Harris said the president spent his entire career fighting for bipartisanship and “finding common ground” through compromise. (RELATED: Reporter Asks Jean-Pierre If It’s ‘Hypocritical’ To Call Trump Candidates ‘Extreme’ After Dems Meddled In Their Primaries)
She said, however, that the president should call out the faction in the U.S. who are allegedly not defending democracy.
“But there are moments in time when we have to also agree — all good people who care about our country — that there are those who right now [who] are vividly not defending our democracy,” she said. “And I think we want that our Commander-in-Chief, the President of the United States will speak up and raise the alarm about what this means to our strength and our future, much less our integrity.”
The host then asked for the vice president’s view on Democratic organizations meddling in Republican elections in favor of the Trump-endorsed candidates.
“It looks a little bit cynical and the president went out of his way to say there are good Republicans here,” Todd said. “Should you leave the good Republicans alone in a primary? Is the Democratic Party making a mistake here by, you know, those people could win if you’re not careful.”
The vice president refused to answer the question, instead stating she was “not going to tell people how to run their campaigns.” Harris also emphasized hot-button issues for Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections, namely abortion and voting legislation. She said the Supreme Court “took a constitutional right” away in the case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and vowed that Biden will sign legislation to protect abortion rights.
“The president has been very clear that he will sign into law, and not let the filibuster get in the way, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act, because what is happening in our country, in states around our country, including this very state [Texas], they are passing laws making it more difficult for people to vote. And so our president has said we need to have protections to make sure that every American, whoever they vote for, has the unobstructed ability to do that when it is otherwise their right.”
The two pieces of legislation intend to nationalize election laws by allowing the Justice Department to challenge state laws as discriminatory and expand early voting and absentee ballot provisions. The president compared opponents of the bills to segregationists Bull Connor and George Wallace.