6 key moments from the Kamala Harris town hall with CNN

Vice President Kamala Harris spoke to undecided voters at a town hall event hosted by CNN on Wednesday in Pennsylvania.

Here are six key moments from Harris’s appearance - with less than two weeks until the election.

Harris agrees with assessment Trump is a fascist

Moderator Anderson Cooper referenced warnings from former Trump aides in recent weeks that the Republican presidential nominee would govern like a dictator if elected again, noting that Harris herself had “not used” the word fascist to describe the former president.

“Let me ask you tonight, do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?” Cooper said. “Yes, I do,” Harris replied. “Yes, I do.”

John F. Kelly, Trump’s longest-serving White House chief of staff, told the New York Times that Trump’s desire for unfettered power fit the definition of “fascist.” “Certainly the former president is in the far-right area, he’s certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators - he has said that,” Kelly said. “So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure.”

Harris said Wednesday she believes that the people who know Trump “best on this subject should be trusted.”

Trump labeled Kelly a “degenerate” and a “bad General,” in a social media post Wednesday, claiming that Kelly had lied about their private interactions in his interview with the Times.

Harris suggests changes to filibuster could codify abortion rights

Harris has spoken passionately throughout her campaign on abortion rights - an issue Democrats have ran on with success as many states take steps to ban or mostly ban the procedure since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade - and she is hosting a rally in Texas on Friday centered on the issue.

At the town hall, she called legal access to abortion an “issue of freedom” that transcends party lines. “This is probably one of the most fundamental freedoms that we as Americans could imagine, which is the freedom to literally make decisions about your own body,” Harris said. “And on some issues, I think we’ve got to agree that partisanship should be put aside.”

She suggested that eliminating the 60-vote threshold to pass most legislation in the Senate may be an option to consider if that’s what’s needed to codify abortion rights into federal law - a move that has drawn opposition from Republicans when she has suggested it previously. “I think we need to take a look at the filibuster, to be honest with you,” she said.

Harris blasts Trump’s charge that Democrats opposed to him are ‘the enemy from within’

Trump has recently ramped up charges that his political opponents are the “enemy from within,” sometimes specifying Democrats such as former House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff, a Senate candidate. “He’s talking about the American people,” Harris said.

Trump, who said he was worried about the potential actions of what he called “radical left lunatics” on Election Day, urged in an interview with Fox News last week that “the enemy from within” should be “easily handled” by the National Guard or the military.

“You can look at a Donald Trump in the White House after January 20, sitting in that Oval Office plotting his revenge. … He’s going to sit there, unstable, unhinged, plotting his revenge, plotting his retribution, creating an enemies list,” Harris said.

Harris knocks Trump for not debating her again

“Donald Trump should be here tonight to talk with you and answer your questions,” she told the audience. “He’s not. He refused to come.”

The only debate between Harris and Trump took place on Sept. 10. The nominees clashed repeatedly as they touched on the economy, immigration, abortion, democracy and climate change.

Harris’s camp immediately pushed for a second debate - including a proposed date of Wednesday - but Trump declined, saying that Oct. 23 was too close to the election. Trump also declined to participate in a CNN town hall of his own on Wednesday. Instead, Trump spoke at a faith-based event and an evening rally in the battleground state of Georgia.

Harris seeks to differentiate herself from Biden

Harris fielded questions about how she would be different than President Joe Biden, a delicate topic as she seeks to tout her own experiences as vice president while also attracting voters looking for change - and fending off critics of any unpopular decisions.

“My administration will not be a continuation of the Biden administration,” she said on Wednesday. “I bring to this role my own ideas and my own experience. I represent a new generation of leadership on a number of issues and believe that we have to actually take new approaches.” While she stressed that her background, including as attorney general of California, informed her views on issues such as housing - and her personal experiences of raising stepchildren while also taking care of her elderly mother have shaped her priorities - she didn’t dive into policy specifics about how her administration would be different.

Harris says Hamas leader’s death is ‘opportunity to end this war’

Responding to a question from the audience about Israel’s war in Gaza and whether she would ensure Palestinians do not die from “bombs being funded by U.S. tax dollars,” Harris said that “far too many innocent Palestinian civilians have been killed. It’s unconscionable.”

The Middle East conflict - and the U.S. response to it, including billions of dollars’ worth of security assistance and weapons over the past year since Israel began retaliating for Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack - has been in sharp focus during the campaign. The war has become a growing vulnerability for Harris.

She said the recent death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, architect of the group’s 2023 massacre in Israel, brings “an opportunity to end this war, bring the hostages home, bring relief to the Palestinian people and work toward a two-state solution.” Sinwar was killed by Israel’s military on Oct. 16 in southern Gaza.

When asked whether she would be “more pro-Israel” than Trump, Harris did not directly respond, saying she believed Trump to be “dangerous.”