Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday responded to new reporting detailing comments retired Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly made about his one-time boss, former President Donald Trump, calling the revelations “deeply troubling and incredibly dangerous” and saying it is clear her GOP opponent falls into the “general definition of fascist.”

“All of this is further evidence for the American people of who Donald Trump really is,” Harris said on Wednesday. “This is a window into who Donald Trump really is from the people who know him best, from the people who worked with him side-by-side in the Oval Office and in the Situation Room.”

“And it is clear from John Kelly’s words that Donald Trump is someone who I quote, ‘certainly falls into the general definition of fascists,’” she continued. 

Harris’ remarks, which were previously unscheduled and delivered from the Vice President’s Residence before she was set to head off to Pennsylvania for a town hall with CNN, came one day after The New York Times and The Atlantic published pieces detailing warnings from Kelly, Trump’s longest-serving White House chief of staff, about the former president. 

Kelly told the New York Times in an interview that Trump “certainly falls into the general definition of a fascist.” The Atlantic story charges that Trump would love to be a dictator and said he wanted generals like the ones Adolf Hitler had. 

“It is deeply troubling and incredibly dangerous that Donald Trump would invoke Adolf Hitler, the man who is responsible for the deaths of six million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Americans,” Harris said on Wednesday. 

The vice president argued that the reporting shows Trump wants a military that is loyal to him first and foremost. 

“He wants a military who will be loyal to him personally,” she said. “One that will obey his orders even when he tells them to break the law or abandon their oath to the Constitution of the United States.”

She repeated her criticisms of Trump recently suggesting the national guard or military should be used to handle the “enemy from within” the U.S. on election day, asserting this means he would go after judges, non-partisan election officials or journalists who don’t “bend a knee” to him. 

Harris also sought to make the case that a second Trump term would be worse because there wouldn’t be officials such as Kelly in his administration to stop him from acting on his wishes. 

“Donald Trump is increasingly unhinged and unstable and in a second term, people like John Kelly would not be there to be the guardrails against his propensities and his actions,” she said. “Those who once tried to stop him from pursuing his worst impulses would no longer be there and no longer be there to rein him in.” 

Trump's campaign sent out a statement after Harris' remarks calling her "a stone-cold loser who is increasingly desperate" and sought to blame the vice president's rhetoric for the two assassination attempts against the Republican nominee this year.

"She is despicable and her grotesque behavior proves she is wholly unfit for office," said Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung.

At a press briefing later Wednesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called Trump's rhetoric "dangerous" and "disgusting."

When asked directly if President Joe Biden believes Trump is a fascist, Jean-Pierre replied: "Yes."

"He said it himself," she continued, pointing to Trump's comment from last year that he would be a dictator only on "day one" of his presidency. "We cannot ignore that. We can not. And we cannot ignore or forget what happened on Jan. 6, 2021. That is real."

A handful of other high-level officials who served in Trump’s administration have also issued warnings about the former president, either publicly or as repealed in reports, such as former Defense Secretaries Mark Esper and Jim Mattis as well as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley and former White House National Security Adviser John Bolton. 

Earlier on Wednesday, on a call with reporters, former Trump staffer, retired Army Reserve Colonel Kevin Carroll, who served as a senior counselor to Kelly, made the case that the American people should be heeding the warnings of these officials. 

“Leaders like General Kelly are warning us that Trump has no empathy, that he's increasingly unstable and unfit, and that he's more extreme than ever,” Carroll said. “I think we have an obligation to take General Kelly and these other leaders such as Secretary Esper, Secretary Mattis, Chairman Milley, seriously when they say these things.”

The vice president on Wednesday ended her remarks by asserting that the new reporting is further evidence that Trump wants unchecked power, going on to insinuate that how it all plays out hinges on the American people on Nov. 5. 

“The bottom line is this: we know what Donald Trump wants,” Harris said. “He wants unchecked power.”

“The question in 13 days will be what do the American people want?” Harris concluded, referring to election day, Nov. 5.

In the reporting released on Tuesday, Kelly also confirmed previously reported stories about controversial comments Trump made privately, including that he called service members who were wounded or killed in combat “losers” and “suckers,” that he did not want to be seen with military amputees, and that he said more than once he thought Hitler “did some good things, too.”

Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, told The Times in a statement that Kelly had shared “debunked stories” and “beclowned” himself.

Spectrum News’ Ryan Chatelain contributed to this report.