Ryan Nicol
Kamala Harris said Wednesday that recently reported comments Donald Trump made to his longest-serving Chief of Staff offer a window into who the former President “really is” and the kind of Commander in Chief he would be.
In interviews with The New York Times and The Atlantic published Tuesday, John Kelly warned that the Republican nominee meets the definition of a fascist and that while in office he suggested that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler “did some good things.”
Harris repeated her increasingly dire warnings about Trump’s mental fitness and his intentions for the presidency.
“This is a window into who Donald Trump really is, from the people who know him best, from the people who have worked with him side by side in the Oval Office and in the situation room,” Harris told reporters outside the Vice President’s residence in Washington.
The comments from Kelly, the retired Marine General who worked for Trump in the White House from 2017 to 2019, build on past warnings from former top Trump officials as the election enters its final two weeks.
Kelly has long been critical of Trump and previously accused him of calling veterans killed in combat “suckers” and “losers.” His new warnings emerged as Trump seeks a second term vowing to dramatically expand his use of the military at home and suggesting he would use force to go after Americans he considers “enemies from within.”
“He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too,’” Kelly recalled to the Times. Kelly said he would usually quash the conversation by saying “nothing (Hitler) did, you could argue, was good,” but that Trump would occasionally bring up the topic again.
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 Chancellor 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.”
Trump’s campaign denied the accounts. Campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said Kelly had “beclowned himself with these debunked stories he has fabricated.”
Harris said Wednesday that Trump admired Hitler’s generals because he “does not want a military that is loyal to the United States Constitution, he wants a military that is loyal to him. He wants a military who will be loyal to him personally.”
Polls show the race is tight in swing states, and both Trump and Harris are crisscrossing the country making their final pitches to the sliver of undecided voters. Harris’ campaign has spent considerable time reaching out to independent voters, using the support of longtime Republicans such as former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney and comments like Kelly’s to urge past Trump voters to reject his candidacy in November.
Harris’ campaign held a call with reporters Tuesday to elevate the voices of retired military officials who highlighted how many of the officials who worked with Trump now oppose his campaign.
“People that know him best are most opposed to him, his presidency,” said retired Army Brig. Gen. Steve Anderson.
Anderson said he wished Kelly would fully back Harris over Trump, something he has yet to do. But retired Army reserve Col. Kevin Carroll, a former senior counselor to Kelly, said Wednesday that the former top Trump official would “rather chew broken glass than vote for Donald Trump.”
Before serving as Trump’s Chief of Staff, Kelly worked as the former President’s Secretary of Homeland Security, where he oversaw Trump’s attempts to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Kelly was also at the forefront of the Trump administration’s crackdown in immigration policy that led to the separation of thousands of immigrant parents and their children along the southern border. Those actions made him a villain to many on the Left, including Harris.
When Kelly joined the board of a company operating the nation’s largest detention center for unaccompanied migrant children, Harris wrote during her 2019 run for President that he “was the architect of the Trump Administration’s cruel child separation policy. Now he will profit off the separation of families. It’s unethical. We are better than this.”
When she was in Miami for a Primary debate in June 2019, Harris was also one of a dozen Democratic presidential candidates who journeyed south of Miami to the detention center. There, they protested against the Trump administration’s harsh treatment of young migrants, including calling out Kelly for serving on the board of the company behind the site in Homestead after he left the Trump administration.
In his interview with the Times, Kelly also said Trump met the definition of a fascist. After reading the definition aloud, including that fascism was “a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader,” Kelly concluded Trump “certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure.”
Kelly added that Trump often fumed at any attempt to constrain his power, and that “he would love to be” a dictator.
“He certainly prefers the dictator approach to government,” Kelly told the Times. Adding later, “I think he’d love to be just like he was in business — he could tell people to do things and they would do it, and not really bother too much about whether what the legalities were and whatnot.”
Kelly is not the first former top Trump administration official to cast the former President as a threat.
Retired Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, who served as Trump’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Bob Woodward in his recent book “War” that Trump was “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country.” And retired Gen. Jim Mattis, who worked as Secretary of Defense under Trump, reportedly later told Woodward that he agreed with Milley’s assessment.
Throughout Trump’s political rise, the businessman-turned-politician benefited from the support of military veterans.
AP VoteCast found that about 6 in 10 military veterans said they voted for Trump in 2020, as did just over half of those with a veteran in the household. Among voters in this year’s South Carolina Republican Primary, AP VoteCast found that close to two-thirds of military veterans and people in veteran households voted for Trump over former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Trump’s toughest opponent in the 2024 Republican Primary.
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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
19 comments
Michael K
October 23, 2024 at 3:43 pm
Of course Trump and his people deny and lie – they cannot even admit he lost an election.
But don’t my word for it – when Trump’s former cabinet members, vice president, Republican senators, congress people, world leaders, conservative journalists, Trump family members, business associates and national security advisors all tell you he is unfit to serve, believe them.
There is only one candidate who has committed herself to upholding the Constitution and the rule of law, and will work for all Americans: Vice President Kamala Harris.
Bobblehead Kammy
October 23, 2024 at 6:16 pm
GMAFB. The most liberal Senator in the United States when she served is suddenly changing all of her positions to be more moderate. Turn on the news, people are taking issue with Kelly’s comments now.
Jimbeau
October 24, 2024 at 2:50 am
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A Day without MAGA
October 24, 2024 at 10:58 am
You know Trump is racist trash and a rapist,it do not stop your support for him, unless you support racist trash yourself
cassandra was right
October 24, 2024 at 12:01 pm
Harris is NOT changing all of her positions. And her positions are not extreme — unlike Trump’s Project 2025.
No one is “taking issue with Kelly’s comments” except FOX news. Kelly’s statements have been consistent for years. If you have some evidence to the contrary this would be the time to provide citations.
Michael K
October 25, 2024 at 8:26 am
More than a dozen former Trump aides have confirmed what Kelly and Milley and others are saying.
Trump is unfit to serve.
A Day without Hitler
October 23, 2024 at 5:40 pm
Google Vanessa Guillen Trump
EARL PITTS AMERICAN
October 23, 2024 at 6:52 pm
Good evening Sage Patriots,
So this is all The Harris Administration could come up with in their “Dook Brains” as an October Suprise?????
Looks like The Harris Administration just threw in the towel America.
If you close your eyes and focus you can hear “The Fat Lady” singing.
IN CLOSING:
In order for all of America’s hard working “SAGE PATRIOTS” to at long last be able to “RELAX THEIR POLITICAL SPHINCTERS” I, EARL PITTS AMERICAN, am going to go ahead and call the election for Trump.
Thank you America, thank you Sage Patriots, and a special thank you to all my, EARL PITTS AMERICAN’s Besty Leftys who I had to work “Like A One-Leged Man In A Butt Kicking Contest” for changing at the voting booth to Trump … yeah Y’all worked “The Pee Pee – Do Do” outta of me but Thank You my Besty Leftys for your Trump Votes,
EARL PITTS AMERICAN
YEW OWEME
October 25, 2024 at 2:16 am
SPHINCTER MAN , talking shit, as usual.
Bobble head Kammy
October 24, 2024 at 7:29 am
My question for Gen Kelly. Why now? Why two weeks before the election? Where have you been the last four plus years? This smells like the Judge Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. It’s already being dismissed by other Generals and Pence.
cassandra was right
October 24, 2024 at 12:13 pm
Kelly has been consistent for the past four year. Why do you want him silenced now — right before the election?
Glad you brought up Kavanaugh. The FBI hid evidence against perjuring, rapey beer boy Kavanaugh too. “The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has admitted that it had received over 4,500 tips about then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and took little action on them, handing off “relevant” tips to the Donald Trump-controlled White House.” -—Truthout.com
KathrynA
October 24, 2024 at 7:46 am
I believe he has said this before! He is warning us now as things will become very dire for this country if he’s elected. Look at the very weird people he is going to install in top positions. Look at sticker Carlson’s sick speech last night and be very worried and vote accordingly. Better yet, read about Hitler if you never have and the horrid things done to millions and not just blacks or Jews. Trump and his allies at Project 2025 plan to implement many and Trump and others are actually saying this! Your freedoms will be lost and not just abortion. But you can bet he will use the military as a big vindictive machine.
Bobble head Kammy
October 24, 2024 at 8:35 am
First of all we will not have a Hitler in this country. We simply don’t have that form of Government. Secondly, stop with the 2025 BS. It is nowhere to be found on the Republican platform
A Day without MAGA
October 24, 2024 at 10:23 am
The Republican consist of mostly White Spiteful People,only thing they know is ,they fail in a society,that benefited White people in the past
A Day without MAGA
October 24, 2024 at 12:17 pm
Jim Crow was not a form of Hitler sociopathy White Supremacy,you fail yourself to have any credibility
Michael K
October 24, 2024 at 12:57 pm
Hitler and the Nazi’s studied, admired used Jim Crow laws as a model for anti-semitism. Trump’s vilification of immigrants “poisoning the blood of this country” is parallel to the language used by Nazis.
But MAGAs don’t want to hear that.
cassandra was right
October 25, 2024 at 10:31 am
Is there anything to support your statement that our form of government won’t allow a Hitler? Trump has made it clear that he plans to change our way of government and SCOTUS has ruled that Trump has immunity for ANYTHING/ EVERYTHING he does in his role as president. What stops Trump?
Project 2025 is all over the Republican Platform! It’s what their platform is based on. Have you read the Project 2025 manual?
A Day without getting Screwed By Trump
October 24, 2024 at 10:20 am
Judge Kavanaugh did rape that woman, Trump DOJ covered it up,do you like getting screwed by Trump doggy style daily Google Trump Kavanaugh Coverup
Jason
October 24, 2024 at 11:33 am
To stop half the mess people need to look at themselves to rebuild what was lost.
Chip in together make a new furniture shop . Stop looking to someone to take them by the hands . Become Independent start a stocks thing. But I understand I am not well educated and less friends get in the way