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    • Kelly’s revelation about Trump’s Nazi envy has the GOP shrugging
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    Kelly’s revelation about Trump’s Nazi envy has the GOP shrugging

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    Something tells me Fox News would react a little differently if we heard that Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris once said she needed “the kind of Marxist guerrillas that Che Guevara had.”

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    Republicans and conservative commentators responded Wednesday to shocking revelations from The Atlantic that Donald Trump, when he was president, said he needed “the kind of generals Hitler had” by essentially saying: OK, so what?

    On Fox News, host Brian Kilmeade broke the news – confirmed by John Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general and Trump’s former chief of staff – in spectacularly lame fashion:

    “I can definitely see him saying, ‘You know what? It would be great to have German generals who actually do what we ask of them, ‘maybe not fully aware of the third rail of German generals who were Nazis or whatever.’

    What? All of Adolf Hitler’s generals were Nazis, son of a bitch. This isn’t something you can shrug your shoulders at and say, “Well, you know, Trump was just angry and trying to make a point.”

    How can anyone defend Trump’s apparently Nazi-jealous comments?

    Something tells me Kilmeade would react a little differently if we heard that Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris once said she needed “the kind of Marxist guerrillas that Che Guevara had.”

    But this is Trump, so what’s a little Nazi envy, I guess. Kelly said in interviews with The New York Times and The Atlantic that Trump also regularly humiliated military veterans and claimed Hitler had “done some good things.”

    “You need to look in the mirror and realize that your shame will live on forever.”

    It is notable that Kilmeade did not dispute whether Trump made these comments. That makes sense, given the source. Kelly is an honorable patriot who has absolutely nothing to gain from sharing this story. In any case, he is putting himself in a position to be the first to be locked up if the former president is re-elected.

    Trump, on the other hand, is a lying convicted felon who should not be trusted by anyone in their right mind.

    Former Rep. Liz Cheney — a true conservative — posted on social media Wednesday: “As your response to General John Kelly, the father of the Gold Star and Trump’s Chief of Staff, confirming that Trump praised Hitler and called members of our military ‘suckers and losers’ is to defend Trump, you need to look in the mirror and realize that your shame will live on forever.

    Indeed.

    Republican Party Governor Says Trump’s Extremism ‘Bried Into the Vote’

    Not to be outdone by Kilmeade in the lickspittle department, Chris Sununu, the Republican governor of New Hampshire, went on CNN and tried to soften Trump’s Nazi-admiring comments.

    “I respect General Kelly, I think he’s great, he has a long relationship with the president. As you enter these final weeks, it’s all about results, so of course you’re going to see salacious things, and I’m not taking away from the general’s conversation with the former president,” Sununu said.

    Opinion: Voting for Trump or Harris means you fully support who they are. Accept it.

    The governor then completely took down the general’s conversation with the former president, treating it as no big shout, saying, “We’ve heard a lot of extreme things about Donald Trump, from Donald Trump. It’s part of the course. Unfortunately, with a guy like that, it’s kind of ingrained into the mood right now.”

    How on earth can “Hitler did some good things” and “I wish I had generals like Hitler’s” just things that are ingrained in them? Is Sununu’s opinion really: “So the man loves Hitler, what am I going to do? Vote for a Lib?”

    Shaking off a wish for Hitler’s generals is never okay

    We’ve been hearing a lot lately about people “clarifying” Trump’s incoherent babble to make it sound normal. But to hear people like Sununu and Kilmeade adopt Trump’s reported positions and shrug off the Nazis is a whole different story.

    Opinion: Trump’s MAGA base might want to brace themselves — Harris might win

    Right-wing squeaker Ben Shapiro posted on social media that Kelly’s comments — which followed retired General Mark Milley saying in a book that Trump is “fascist to the core” — were “the left-wing media’s latest oppo dump.” and that no one should care about them.

    He wrote that “people are concerned about the quality of their lives.”

    Okay, buddy, I would say that the quality of people’s lives might drop a bit if we elect someone who has these kinds of unhinged authoritarian beliefs. But soldiers like Kelly and Milley are also as far from the left as you can get, and this wasn’t an “oppo dump,” these are words coming from the mouths of two prominent American figures.

    There is a candidate who has not suggested that Hitler did good things

    I will never understand how so many people humiliated themselves by defending a man like Trump. But defenses don’t matter much when someone says the indefensible.

    As Cheney said, Kilmeade and Sununu and Shapiro and all the other toadies who stand by their man can enjoy the shame they’ll carry with them for the rest of eternity.

    I stand by the more widely accepted view that all Nazis were bad, that fascism is worthless, and that veterans deserve our respect and admiration.

    And I’m sure I won’t vote for anyone who thinks otherwise.

    Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

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