In an appearance on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show on Monday, Kamala Harris called Donald Trump a “tyrant.” That much wasn’t surprising or interesting. As the second Trump administration has mounted ever more brazen assaults against free speech, due process, and universally guaranteed citizenship over the course of the last eight months, numerous Democrats and progressives have called Trump a “tyrant.” The divide among anti-Trump forces has centered on whether to exclusively focus on the broadly pro-democracy message (“no kings”) or to integrate it with the broader critique of “oligarchy” offered by politicians like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), and Zohran Mamdani.

In her subsequent comments to Rachel Maddow, though, former Vice President Harris went in another direction entirely.

We used to compare the strength of our democracy to communist dictators. That’s what we’re dealing with right now in Donald Trump. And these titans of industry are not speaking up!