Reports that GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump praised Adolf Hitler and said he wished his military leaders were more like the German dictator’s generals have left Republican candidates and elected officials publicly playing defense in the waning days before the Nov. 5 general election.
Some Republicans opted to dispute the account by John Kelly, Trump’s former White House chief of staff. Others took a throwing-hands-in-the-air approach, saying that ultimately voters know Trump says outrageous things.
The former president took to his own social media site to dispute Kelly’s account Wednesday afternoon, as well as in an interview Thursday with conservative talk radio personality Hugh Hewitt.
“Even though I shouldn’t be wasting my time with him, I always feel it’s necessary to hit back in pursuit of THE TRUTH. John Kelly is a LOWLIFE, and a bad General, whose advice in the White House I no longer sought, and told him to MOVE ON!” Trump posted on Truth Social.
In the post, he also said that Kelly had “made up a story out of pure Trump Derangement Syndrome Hatred.”
In his interview with Hewitt, Trump said past attacks on him had backfired and his candidacies had overhauled the GOP party.
“The Republican Party is a very big, powerful party. Before, it was an elitist party with real stiffs running it,” he said.
Kelly, a former Marine general who was Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff, spoke with both The Atlantic and The New York Times about his concerns with Trump’s strongman leanings.
Kelly confirmed previous reporting that Trump had said Hitler “did some good things, too” as well as that he wished his own military leaders had been like Hitler’s generals, who Trump mistakenly believed were loyal (even as history recorded that some had participated in assassination attempts against Hitler).
The former chief of staff also told the Times that Trump “certainly falls into the general definition of fascist.”
Vice President Kamala Harris pounced on Kelly’s comments Wednesday, addressing them with reporters and during a CNN town hall later that day, where she agreed that Trump is a fascist and described Kelly’s statements, coming so close to the election, as “a 911 call to the American people.”
Harris was not the only Democrat playing up Kelly’s remarks and using them to put their GOP opponents on the spot.
“As American citizens and voters who believe in the Constitution, these reports are a stark reminder of the stakes of this election, that Donald Trump is wholly unfit to be Commander in Chief, and belongs nowhere near the Oval Office ever again,” said Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) in a statement.
“Not only do these offensive comments discount and downplay the horrors of the Holocaust and Hitler’s evil mass murder of millions of Jews, they further prove why Donald Trump is unfit to serve as our nation’s commander-in-chief,” Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), who is in a tough reelection race, said in a statement.
“I’ve called out antisemitism and Holocaust distortion when they rear their ugly head regardless of which side of the aisle it comes from, and I hope my opponent can put partisanship aside to join me in denouncing these disturbing comments,” Rosen added.
Similarly, John Avlon, the Democratic challenger to Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), raised the remarks in a televised debate Wednesday night, citing LaLota’s support of Trump.
“That seems pretty relevant to the choices facing our nation and to the judgment my opponent observes,” Avlon said.
LaLota accepted Trump’s claim that Kelly was incorrect.
“A good journalist, an independent, honest, trustworthy journalist, would verify the fact before he spewed some sort of rhetoric hearsay that has not been confirmed,” LaLota said during the debate, referring to Avlon’s past as a cable TV commentator. “The campaign has denied that, as it should. That should not be said anywhere.”
A similar tack was taken by Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) in an appearance on CNN’s “News Central,” saying he doubted the veracity of Kelly’s claims.
“Obviously, he doesn’t like President Trump. I would take that with a grain of salt just as I would some of the other things that have been reported that have been debunked consistently along these lines,” said Hagerty, who is not up for reelection this year.
Another Republican, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, also said on CNN that supporters would look past Kelly’s accusation and still vote for Trump.
“People are willing to say, look, I don’t like his style, I don’t like his approach, I don’t like the things he says, but if we can get a Republican mindset out of Washington that says, you come first as an individual, not big government. States rights matter, regulatory reforms, we’re going to cut regulation out. We’re going to make things a little easier in terms of costs. We’re going to handle the inflation,” Sununu said.
“That’s how bad things are,” he added.
