Spare a thought for Donald Trump’s sycophantic supporters, tasked with spinning on the former president’s behalf amid his latest fiascos. It can’t be easy to defend the indefensible, though these poor partisans have to give it a try anyway.
This week, for example, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, retired Gen. John Kelly, alerted the public to a new round of breathtaking allegations: Kelly said he saw and heard the former Republican president, among other things, offer private praise for “Hitler’s generals” and the “good things” the former president thought Hitler did. Trump’s former top aide also said Trump meets the “definition of ‘fascist’” and “prefers the dictator approach to government.”
How, pray tell, would the GOP candidate’s allies make this sound less scandalous?
Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade helped get the ball rolling, telling the “Fox and Friends” audience that “maybe” Trump was not fully “cognizant” about the German generals “who were Nazis and whatever.”
As powerful and persuasive as this defense was — or at least as Kilmeade might’ve hoped it was — other Republicans apparently realized they had to come up with some alternative arguments.
Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida, for example, appeared on CNN and said, in reference to Kelly’s comments, “I find the timing suspicious.” I’m not entirely sure what that means, but if the GOP congressman believes the former White House chief of staff is warning voters ahead of Election Day, I think that’s accurate. I also think it’s an underwhelming defense, given the seriousness of the retired general’s claims.
Bill Ackman, one of Trump’s prominent billionaire backers, appeared on CNBC and responded to Kelly by saying that the retired general is simply “one person stating a series of things.” That might be a bit more persuasive were it not for the fact that similar accusations have been made by many others who worked directly with the former president.
But one defense was the pièce de resistance, and it was highlighted by The Washington Post: New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) shrugged off a report that Donald Trump said in private he wished he had military generals like the ones who served Adolf Hitler. ‘Look, we’ve heard a lot of extreme things about Donald Trump, from Donald Trump; it’s kind of par for the course,’ Sununu said Wednesday during an appearance on CNN. He added, ‘With a guy like that, it’s kind of baked into the vote, at this point.’
Yes, the Republican governor of New Hampshire — a former fierce critic of Trump who occasionally embarrasses himself trying to downplay the importance of Trump scandals — is unconcerned about the former president’s desire for “Hitler’s generals” because that’s just the sort of thing we’ve come to expect from Trump. Except that’s not a defense. It’s the opposite. It’s the sort of thing we’d expect a Trump critic to say, while explaining that Kelly’s comments are part of a larger pattern. For his part, the Republican Party’s nominee for the nation’s highest office continues to deny the allegations raised by his former White House chief of staff. By way of his social media platform, Trump also slammed Kelly anew, calling him “a total degenerate,” “dumb,” “a LOWLIFE” and a “bad General.”
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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