Mick Mulvaney, who served as acting White House chief of staff in the Trump administration, attacked retired Gen. John Kelly for recounting several conservations in which former President Trump allegedly spoke favorably about Adolf Hitler and his ability to inspire loyalty within his military.
Kelly — who served as Trump’s White House chief of staff from July 2017 to January 2019 — told CNN anchor and chief national security analyst Jim Sciutto for a new book that Trump sometimes expressed admiration of leaders, including Hitler, allegedly saying once, “Hitler did some good things.”
Mulvaney, in an interview on “The Hill” on NewsNation, railed against Kelly for making those allegations about Trump and insisted he had never heard the former president mention Hitler by name.
Mulvaney was Kelly’s successor, serving as acting White House chief of staff from January 2019 to March 2020.
“I now find it really interesting that a lot of people who accuse Donald Trump of not reading are now not only accusing him of reading, but reading Hitler’s speeches at night,” Mulvaney said.
“This is really, really outrageous,” he continued. “I never saw anything close to this. I spent more time with Donald Trump than John Kelly did. John Kelly hates the president. I don’t know why he viscerally can’t stand him; why he’s choosing to do this, I’m not really sure, but I never heard Donald Trump mention the word Hitler, and I certainly never saw him reading any of the other speeches.”
Mulvaney has been critical of his former boss but, Tuesday, said he always makes sure to do so “in a respectful manner.” Mulvaney urged Kelly and the public to stop comparing GOP presidential candidates to Hitler.
“This is not. This is not right. John needs to shut the hell up,” Mulvaney said.
In response to the report in Sciutto’s book, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung ripped both Kelly and John Bolton, the former national security adviser to Trump, who have both said critical things in the past about Trump and were quoted in Sciutto’s book.
“John Kelly and John Bolton have completely beclowned themselves and are suffering from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. They need to seek professional help because their hatred is consuming their empty lives,” he wrote in the statement.
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