Fox News host Brian Kilmeade is under fire for what some see as him defending Donald Trump’s embrace of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s regime, including reportedly saying he wanted “Hitler’s generals,” when he was president.
“Donald Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff is warning that the Republican presidential nominee meets the definition of a fascist and that while in office, Trump suggested that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler ‘did some good things,’” The Associated Press reports. “The comments from John Kelly, the retired Marine general who worked for Trump in the White House from 2017 to 2019, came in interviews with both The New York Times and The Atlantic. They build on a growing series of warnings from former top Trump officials as the election enters its final weeks.”
“He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too,’” Kelly (photo above, with Trump) told The New York Times, the AP notes.
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“In his interview with The Atlantic, Kelly recalled that when Trump raised the idea of needing ‘German generals,’ Kelly would ask if he meant ‘Bismarck’s generals,’ referring to Otto von Bismarck, the former chancellor of the German Reich who oversaw the unification of Germany. ‘Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals,’ Kelly recalled asking Trump. To which the former president responded, ‘Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.’”
The AP also reported, “Kelly added that Trump often fumed at any attempt to constrain his power, and that ‘he would love to be’ a dictator,” and told The Times: “He certainly prefers the dictator approach to government.”
Wednesday morning on “Fox & Friends,” Kilmeade, a staunch Trump supporter, defended the ex-president, a convicted felon awaiting sentencing who is running for re-election as the Republican Party’s presidential nominee.
Kilmeade alleged that General Kelly, Trump’s then-chief of staff, and Jim Mattis, Trump’s Secretary of Defense, “didn’t like the president, and they didn’t think he deserved the job or they didn’t think he was worthy of the job, and they went out of his way to make sure a lot of the things they asked him to do that they didn’t like never got done.”
“And then you factor in the fact that he runs his own company, coming from the business world, the first one we’ve ever had, it’s not even a public company,” Kilmeade said of Trump, a real estate developer who was far from the first business owner President, “and then he obviously has frustration, and I could absolutely see him go now, ‘you know what? It would be great to have German generals that actually do what we asked them to do,’ knowing that’s a third, uh, maybe not fully on uh fully being cognizant of the third rail of German generals were Nazis and whatever.”
Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson James Singer responded: “German generals were asked to exterminate the Jewish people. They murdered 6 million Jews, including my great grandfather, in concentration camps. What the hell is wrong with @kilmeade?”
Former Trump White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews did not hold back: “This… is insane. Hitler’s generals carried out GENOCIDE. Republicans: STOP defending this. This is not normal. There is no way to spin this.”
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Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas, who is also a co-founder Vox Media, wrote: “Now FOX NEWS is defending Nazis, because they must always have Donald Trump’s back, even when he’s praising Nazis.”
Republican Voters Against Trump commented: “Is @kilmeade talking about the ‘Nazi or whatever’ German generals who were asked by Hitler to carry out a genocide? This is insane.”
Journalist Ahmed Baba warned: “If anyone doubts the right-wing ecosystem wouldn’t fully back Trump unleashing authoritarian depravity in a second term, look no further than this clip. They’re already excusing it.”
The Lincoln Project added: “There’s an ‘enemy within’ alright,” referring to Trump’s recent attacks in Democrats, “and it’s Americans who will justify any admiration of literal Nazis. Fox is not your friend.”
The Bulwark’s Sam Stein added, “The spin here is that Trump is…. unaware that the Nazis were bad?”
Issac Bailey, a professor of communication studies and McClatchy opinion columnist wrote: “This is one of the most damaging things Trump has done, convinced people to disregard all sensibilities in order to protect him from himself. Now his supporters are openly saying, hey, wanting to have Nazi-like generals isn’t all that bad. God help us.”
Watch the clip below or at this link.
Fox host Brian Kilmeade justifies Trump wanting German generals
Kilmeade: I can absolutely see him go it’d be great to have German generals that actually do what we ask them to do, maybe not fully being cognizant of the third rail of German generals who were Nazis or whatever pic.twitter.com/6lpjH6foEk
— Lis Power (@LisPower1) October 23, 2024
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Image of Trump and Kelly: Official DHS photo by Barry Bahler via Flickr