Donald Trump’s former chief of staff calling him a Hitler-loving fascist shouldn’t be ignored, former President Barack Obama urged while on the campaign trail in Georgia Thursday night.
“Just because he acts goofy,” Obama said, after criticizing Trump’s meandering “word salad” speeches, “does not mean his presidency would not be dangerous.”
Obama cited John Kelly’s comments to The New York Times, as well as those of other former members of Trump’s administration who have likewise issued stark warnings regarding his dictatorial ambitions.
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“The other day, Gen. John Kelly, Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, said that Trump told him he wanted his generals to be like Hitler‘s generals,” Obama said. “Don’t boo; vote!”
Obama added that it’s a “good rule of thumb” in politics to not say you want to in any way emulate the Nazi leader.
But more importantly, he continued, the reviews of Trump by some of those who knew him best while in the White House serve a purpose: providing a clear view of “how Donald Trump thinks.”
“John Kelly isn’t the only one saying this,” he said, before alluding to former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, who called Trump a “total fascist.”
“I happen to know John Kelly and Mark Milley. They served under me when I was commander-in-chief. These are serious people. This is a decorated soldier and Marine who served in battle. They are not ‘woke liberals,’“ Obama said, rejecting Trump’s rant last night that Kelly had a case of ”Trump Derangement Syndrome."
“They are people who have never in the past even talked about politics because they believe the military should be above politics,” Obama said.
“But the reason they are speaking up is because they have seen that in Donald Trump‘s mind, the military does not exist to serve the Constitution or American people,” Obama said. “He doesn’t see being commander-in-chief as a solemn, sacred responsibility. Just like every thing else, he thinks the military exists to do his bidding and serve his interests. He said if he’s elected, he will use that military to go after ’the enemy within,’ which he defines as anyone who criticizes him or refuses to bend the knee.”
“Unlike the first time, he won’t have people like John Kelly around to stop him,” Obama warned. “He will be surrounded by people just as loony as he is and who will let him do what he wants. So my question to you, Georgia: How is any of that going to help you?”
Obama later introduced Vice President Kamala Harris, who would go on to make that same point after citing Kelly’s damning description of his former boss.
“Just imagine Donald Trump with no guard rails,” she said. “He, who will claim unchecked and extreme power if he is re-elected, who has vowed that he will be a dictator on day one, who calls Americans who disagree with him—I will quote—“the enemy from within.”
