Kamala Harris called Donald J. Trump a fascist on Wednesday evening, elevating what until recently had been an argument made only in the lower ranks of a Democratic Party that has spent years attacking him as anti-democratic, unfit to serve and a criminal.

Early in a CNN town hall in Pennsylvania, she readily agreed with the host, Anderson Cooper, when he asked whether she believed Mr. Trump met the definition of a fascist. “Yes, I do,” she quickly shot back. “Yes, I do.”

Later, when asked about the plight of Palestinians in Gaza, she jumped into a loaded critique of her rival.

“For many people who care about this issue, they also care about bringing down the price of groceries,” she said. “They also care about our democracy and not having a president of the United States who admires dictators and is a fascist.”

Her comments — which went a step beyond her previous agreement that Mr. Trump was a fascist — were intended to amplify the news this week that John Kelly, Mr. Trump’s former White House chief of staff, said he thought the former president met the definition of the word and worried deeply about the threat a second Trump administration posed to democratic institutions.

Ms. Harris’s attacks on Wednesday evening went largely unanswered: Mr. Trump declined both a second debate and an invitation from CNN to participate in a similar forum.

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