Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday that former President Donald Trump is now “more unhinged, more unstable” and more dangerous than when she faced him in the 2016 presidential election.
“I think he’s more unhinged, more unstable,” the losing 2016 Democratic nominee told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on “The Source.” “I think you see that all the time in both his rallies and his kind of word-salad-after-word-salad speeches.”
Clinton – the first woman to capture a major-party nomination for president – also drew a contrast between her 2016 effort and Kamala Harris’ campaign, saying the vice president has centered her message on reminding voters how dangerous Trump could be for the country.
“I think that she’s running her campaign based on a lot of the lessons that we have learned over the last eight years. First and foremost, how incredibly dangerous Donald Trump is. That wasn’t maybe as clear as it should have been back in 2016. But it sure is now,” Clinton said. “And I think her warnings, the warnings of not just Democrats like President Obama, but the people who actually observed him up close for the four years he was actually in the White House are warning us with everything they possibly can say.”
Clinton says Harris doesn’t have Comey ‘waiting to kneecap her’
Clinton’s comments on “The Source” come days after the publication of remarks by Trump’s former chief of staff, retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, who said in new interviews that the former president met the definition of a “fascist.”
Kelly, who was Trump’s chief of staff from 2017 to 2019, also told The New York Times that the former president “certainly prefers the dictator approach to government” and confirmed to The Atlantic that Trump had said he wished his military personnel showed him the same deference Adolf Hitler’s Nazi generals showed the German dictator during World War II.
Trump on Thursday denied saying that he needed “the kind of generals that Hitler had” and bashed The Atlantic when asked by CNN about the reported comments.
“No, I never said that. I would never say that. It’s a rag that he made up stories. He’s done it before,” the former president said. “Right before the election, it’s just a failing magazine.”
At the CNN town hall with Harris on Wednesday, the vice president said, “Yes, I do” when asked if she considers Trump a fascist. She also called him “dangerous” and warned of Trump’s promise to use the Justice Department to attack critics and former allies if elected again.
Clinton said Thursday she agreed with Kelly and Harris that Trump met the definition of a fascist and urged people “who don’t want to go there” to “please open your eyes to the danger that this man poses to our country.”
Asked what she thinks Harris should do to avoid a repeat of 2016, Clinton dryly recalled a politically damaging federal probe that then-FBI director James Comey reopened days before the election.
“Well, first of all, I don’t think she has Jim Comey in the wings waiting to kneecap her. So that’s good and I’m very grateful for that,” Clinton said.
CNN’s Kate Sullivan and Eric Bradner contributed to this report.
