Donald Trump’s repeated, glowing mentions of Hannibal Lecter, the fictional cannibal and serial killer, have been in good fun and are not cause for concern, Fox News host Brian Kilmeade argued Thursday, even as the 78-year-old campaigns for the office of president of the United States.
Kilmeade insisted that Trump is merely “kidding around” when he offers kind words for the infamous character.
“He’s having fun!” the Fox & Friends co-host claimed on America Reports. “He’s talking about Hannibal Lecter, he’s looking in the audience, he’s playing around! And now people are going, ‘Trump is losing it.’ No, he’s having fun! And that’s what he was picked on [for].”
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Besides reportedly praising Lecter at a closed-door meeting with Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill last week, Trump namechecked the “late, great” antagonist at a rally last month in New Jersey.
“Silence of the Lamb [sic]. Has anyone ever seen The Silence of the Lambs?” Trump said. “The late, great Hannibal Lecter is a wonderful man. He oftentimes would have a friend for dinner. Remember the last scene? ‘Excuse me. I’m about to have a friend for dinner,’ as this poor doctor walked by. ‘I’m about to have a friend for dinner.’ But Hannibal Lecter—congratulations. The late, great Hannibal Lecter.”
It’s unclear why Trump used the term “late, great,” since the character hasn’t died in any medium, as The New York Times noted. Actor Anthony Hopkins, who assumed the role in the 1991 film and whose name Trump seemed to forget last fall, is 86.
At that May rally, Trump segued from Lecter to demonizing migrants. The presumptive GOP nominee has often claimed that migrants are coming to the U.S. from “mental institutions,” “insane asylums,” and prisons, and that they are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
