Lindsey Graham was pressed on the description of Donald Trump offered by his former White House chief of staff, John Kelly, on Sunday, and argued that the ex-president was not “Hitler” as a line of defense as he ripped the general who reported the alleged comment.
It was a surreal moment that played out on ABC’s This Week as Jonathan Karl questioned Graham about Kelly’s comments this past week; Kelly, who served for months as Trump’s no. 2 in the West Wing, said that his former boss often said that Adolf Hitler did good things for Germany and praised the loyalty of Hitler’s generals.
Graham called the statement an “opinion,” despite the well-regarded general stating it was what Trump had said.
"He's entitled to his opinion, I just categorically reject it,” Graham told Karl. “He was a strong leader on the things that matter the most…He's not a fascist. He's not Hitler."
“Donald Trump is the most popular politician from the West because he stood by the state of Israel,” Graham continued. “Hitler wanted to kill all the Jews!”
But Karl correctly pointed out that Kelly and other Trump administration officials who backed up the general’s claim were not calling Trump “Hitler,” though he had commented about the former president supposedly displaying “fascist” tendencies. Those tendencies towards authoritarianism would presumably not be affected by whether or not the ex-president is a political supporter of the Israeli government.
"They didn't call him Hitler," Karl told the senator.
"What they did is they're trying to scare Americans that this man can't fix the problems we need fixed," Graham responded. "I don't think he's a fascist. I thought he was a very strong president at a time we needed a strong president."
The moment comes as Kamala Harris, Trump’s opponent, is making a push for breakaway Republican votes with the aid of Liz Cheney, former Vice President Dick Cheney and a slew of other Republican endorsers who have called on their party to rid itself of Trumpism in this election cycle.
Harris herself has made campaign stops with Cheney, the Republican lead on the January 6 riot investigation by the House.
Trump, meanwhile, remains neck-and-neck with Harris in the polls and appears to be working to divide key Democratic constituencies in swing states — such as in Michigan, where Republicans funded by Trump ally Elon Musk are running a coordinated ad campaign aimed at driving down voter enthusiasm among the state’s significant Arab American and Muslim populations.
Polling shows the race within single digits across a wide array of states, suggesting that each side will need to ensure high turnout among their most loyal voters on November 5 to be competitive.
