• Vice President Kamala Harris is doing everything she can to make sure the American people know that a hell of a lot of conservatives also think former President Donald Trump is batshit crazy. She got a batch of fresh material to work with yesterday, after Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly, told The Atlantic that his former boss wanted “the kind of generals Hitler had.” Kelly also told the New York Times — with recorded audio — that Trump met the definition of a fascist, has no understanding of the Constitution or rule of law, and will become a dictator if he’s allowed. 
  
  

• Today, Harris seized on those comments: “In a second term, people like John Kelly would not be there to be the guard rails against his propensities and his actions,” Harris said at Washington D.C.’s Naval Observatory. “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.” 
  
  

• Kelly’s on-the-record warning might just help some Republican voters resolve to abandon Trump, according to Jeff Flake, the former Republican Arizona senator who recently endorsed Harris. “I think it makes a difference,” Flake told What a Day in a phone call this afternoon. “There are very few undecideds out there, but I think a legitimate group of undecideds are Republicans who have never cottoned to the former president — but they have a hard time given what people are told these days that you can't be a conservative unless you vote for the Republican slate as it is.” It helps when Trump-skeptical conservatives see former Rep. Liz Cheney and others come out and campaign with Harris, he added.

• The poll found that emphasizing support from Republicans and conservatives was even more effective than focusing on the threat Trump poses to reproductive rights, which has long been seen as one of the Democrats’ most powerful messages. Harris, apparently, got the memo, and has begun campaigning hard in swing states with a flock of conservatives. During a CNN town hall tonight, Harris is expected to capitalize on Kelly’s comments even further.
  
  

• Some on the right don’t buy this idea, though. Trump has thrived on turning controversy into media dominance, and Kelly’s comments may simply play into that strategy, according to Kurt Volker, Trump’s former top Ukraine official (who had a rocky split from the administration and played a prominent role in Trump’s first impeachment). “It definitely helps him,” Volker told What A Day. “If you think about what's happening in this late phase in the election cycle, all the news is about Trump. It's either his rallies, his campaigns, his messaging, or it's Kamala and the Democratic campaign also talking about him — and in a negative way, but talking about him. So it’s all about Trump, and this benefits him.”
  
  

• Many Republicans, including Trump’s former top military officials, are also worried about the former president’s cozy relationship with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and how he would represent the U.S. on the world stage. “One of the political parties in this country is a pro-Russia party. That's the case for my opponent. It's the case for the people my opponent associates with,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), who’s locked in a contentious race that could decide how the Senate swings, told Pod Save America today. “Democrats don't go to bed with dictators.”

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