By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
Vice President Kamala Harris raised concerns about Donald Trump’s ongoing racist rhetoric during a virtual town hall with radio host Charlamagne tha God, suggesting the former president intends to use fear as a tool to target minority communities. Harris responded to a voter from Georgia who feared Trump would use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to detain people of color. “Bobby,” the voter, expressed worry that Trump would “put anyone that doesn’t look white in camps.”
“You’ve hit on a really important point and expressed it, I think, so well,” Harris said. “He is running full-time on a campaign that is about instilling fear. Not about hope, not about optimism, not about the future, but about fear.”
Harris went on to criticize Trump’s claims that immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating their pets. She also accused him of sabotaging a bipartisan border security bill that would have added border agents and targeted fentanyl trafficking. “He would prefer to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem,” Harris stated.
Democratic strategist James Carville earlier voiced his concerns, comparing Trump’s tactics to those of Nazi Germany. Speaking on MSNBC’s Inside with Jen Psaki, Carville warned that Trump’s planned rally at Madison Square Garden on October 27 was reminiscent of a pro-Nazi event held there in 1939. During that rally, which drew 20,000 supporters, swastikas were displayed alongside a portrait of George Washington, while speakers promoted anti-Semitic views.
Carville cautioned Americans about the dangers of another Trump presidency: “They’re telling you they’re doing all of this. This is not something we’re making up. They have promised military round-up.” He emphasized the Harris campaign’s need to clarify the severe threats Trump could pose.
Trump recently stated on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures that he might deploy the National Guard or military forces to prevent “radical left lunatics” from causing unrest on Election Day. “It should be very easily handled by, if necessary, the National Guard, or if really necessary, the military,” he said.
Others have echoed Carville’s concerns. In June, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow questioned whether camps under a Trump administration would be limited to migrants, saying, “What convinces you that these massive camps he’s planning are only for migrants?”
New York State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal has called on Madison Square Garden to cancel Trump’s rally, stating, “Allowing Trump to hold an event at MSG is equivalent to the infamous Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden on February 20, 1939.” He urged the venue to “keep our city safe.”
With three weeks until Election Day, Carville made his final plea: “Pay attention to them right now, please. They’re telling you.”
