MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace said Monday on her show “Deadline” that former President Donald Trump’s “affinity” Adolf Hitler was excused “under an umbrella of his stupidity.”
Wallace said, “Let’s deal with Hitler. Trump’s affinity was always covered under an umbrella with his stupidity. People like General Kelly were like, ‘Oh you must not get it. You must not mean Hitler’s army.'”
ABC News anchor Jonathan Karl said, “He would talk about the brilliance of Hitler’s generals.”
Wallace said, “Correct. You have some reporting about that. But tell me how Trump sees Hitler.”
Karl said, “Trump has this infatuation with strong leaders. He thinks that’s good, they must be brilliant and smart. This is why he actually was praising Hezbollah recently for being smart, he talks about his phrase for Kim Jong-un, for Putin.”
He added, “I’m not saying that Donald Trump is a Nazi. But there is this infatuation that he has, and he echoes his language. That’s when you were talking about rooting out the vermin, even the phrase ‘The enemy of the people,’ which he used to describe the press, is something that is drawn from Nazi Germany. It’s also drawn from Stalin. This is a dictator’s phrase. It’s one that he eagerly embraced. Does he know the history of it, I don’t know, but the parallel is clear.”
Wallace said, “Here’s why I don’t buy the ignorance anymore. An ignorant person, when warned that Hitler used to say that, would stop. Trump is turning up the volume.”
Karl said, “Absolutely.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN