Former President Barack Obama severely attacked his successor, former President Donald Trump, on Thursday after Trump, as president, at one point spoke approvingly of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
Earlier this week, former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly spoke The Atlantic Ocean And The New York Times about his fear of a new Trump term. In separate interviews, Kelly told the news media that he believed his former boss met the definition of a fascist; talked about how Trump wished Kelly would be “completely loyal,” as Hitler’s generals had been; and said he felt compelled to speak out after Trump suggested he would use the military to attack his political enemies.
Obama raised the reports while delivering an impassioned speech in support of Vice President Kamala Harris in Atlanta on Thursday evening.
“Now let me explain that in politics, a good rule of thumb is don’t say you want to do something like Hitler,” Obama told the crowd. “That’s just good political advice, but it’s useful because it gives us insight into how Donald Trump thinks. And John Kelly isn’t the only one saying this. Two of his defense ministers, people who worked for him, said the same thing.”
Obama then praised Kelly, a former Marine general who also served as Trump’s secretary of homeland security, as a decorated soldier who in the past had “never even talked about politics because … the military is supposed to be above that.”
“But the reason they speak out is because they have seen that, in Donald Trump’s eyes, the military does not exist to serve the Constitution or the American people,” Obama said. ‘He does not see the commander-in-chief as a solemn, sacred responsibility. Like everything else, he thinks the military exists to do his bidding.”
Trump has denied making the comments about Hitler and attacked Kelly as a “total degenerate.”
The Republican presidential candidate said in an interview earlier this month that he was concerned about “the enemy within” America, referring to those who criticized him. Trump told Fox News at the time that he believed “radical left-wing lunatics” could be “easily dealt with, if necessary, by the National Guard, or, if truly necessary, by the military.”
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Obama further said in Georgia on Thursday that Trump’s rhetoric would not be good for the nation and asked voters to consider the benefits of a second term.
“How is this going to help you?” he asked. ‘We don’t need four years of a wannabe king, a wannabe dictator running around punishing his enemies. That’s not what you need in your life.”
“America is ready to turn the page, we are ready for a better story,” he said.