Republican Florida Rep. Mike Waltz defended Republican nominee Donald Trump against the recent accusations that he is the “definition of a fascist” during a Wednesday interview with CNN’s Brianna Keilar.
John Kelly, the longest-lasting chief of staff for Trump, told The New York Times Wednesday that the former president “met the definition of a fascist” and admired figures like former Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. Waltz said the report does not make sense to him, stating that the former president has been “caring” and “compassionate” toward gold star families and has “done more for Israel than any president in modern history.”
“[Kelly’s allegations] doesn’t make sense to me, I find the timing suspicious, and it just completely is divorced from the man that I’ve come to know in Donald Trump and how he has dealt with gold star families, how he has been caring, how he has been compassionate. And don’t take it from me, take it from the 13 Abbey Gate gold star families, some of whom have stood on a stage in front of a 30,000 person crowd and said how he helped them heal. He spent hours with them, he promised them transparency … Like I said, it makes no sense to me, it doesn’t comport,” Waltz said.
“And on the fascism piece, you’re saying he’s praising Hitler yet this is a president that has done more for Israel than any president in modern history,” Waltz continued. “Moved our embassy, recognized Golan Heights, signed the Abraham Peace Accords not once, not twice, but three times on the White House lawn. We’re seeing Jewish Americans move our way in the polling. Moving his way in the polling. At the same time you’re seeing these grotesque protests on our college campuses, antisemitism abounding among the left, Jewish students being harassed and feeling unsafe and none of this comports.”
Keilar argued that Kelly spoke out just 13 days before the election because he is concerned with Trump calling his political opponents, including Democratic California Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff, the “enemies from within.” Waltz said Kelly was motivated by his “deep disdain” toward Trump and argued the far-left has shown fascist tendencies by trying to eliminate checks and balances in the U.S. political system.
“Let’s go back to this notion of fascism and centralized control because we have an allegation of rhetoric, we have he said versus she said. And what I’m seeing are actual actions by the progressive left, I mean, fascism really is about no checks and balances, no controls. They want to stack the Supreme Court, I’ve seen that legislation” Waltz said. “They want to eliminate the filibuster, our last kind of harbinger of bipartisanship. They want to eliminate the Electoral College which would have just a couple of cities determining our next president. Those are critical checks and balances that will check power for anyone and the left is actually moving to eliminate them because they don’t like them.”
“So what I think voters are going to have to decide in these next couple of weeks is we have allegations of rhetoric from a conversation four years ago, or actions that they are seeing right now from the left or the lack of action in terms of making their lives better in terms of the economy, crime, and the border and in global chaos,” Waltz continued.
The CNN host claimed Trump is talking about using the military to go after his political opponents and support censorship, though the former president called on the military to be used if political unrest ensues during the election. The congressman said the former president did not show any dictatorial tendencies during his time as president, while his policies toward Israel were celebrated by Jewish Americans.
“We literally had peace deals being signed on the White House lawn of the Abraham Accords and the Jewish state and Jewish Americans celebrated President Trump for that. Doesn’t sound like a Hitler to me,” the Florida congressman added.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that President Joe Biden’s administration views Trump as a “fascist” in response to Kelly’s statements.
Featured Image Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America
