Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty (R) and CNN's John Berman sparred in an interview Wednesday over former President Trump's past comments in which the Republican presidential candidate allegedly praised Adolf Hitler.
The remarks, made by President Trump's former chief of staff John Kelly in an interview with The New York Times, have sparked a political firestorm with less than two weeks until Election Day. Vice President Harris held a press conference on Wednesday and criticized President Trump for his comments, saying he was becoming increasingly unstable.
Mr. Hagerty said in an interview that he took the comments “with a grain of salt” given Mr. Trump's relationship with Mr. Kelly.
“I worked with both General Kelly and President Trump in the previous administration, and we didn't get along well. General Kelly is on the record as having criticized President Trump on numerous occasions. Clearly, he has criticized President Trump. I don’t like it,” Hagerty said when pressed by Berman. The senator participated in an audio recording of Kelly discussing his remarks.
“I'm going to take that with a grain of salt, as well as some other things that have been consistently debunked along these lines,” Hagerty added.
Hagerty also said he would not say “Hitler did any good.”
Berman interjected, referring to a text message from Ohio Sen. “It's dangerous to try to draw comparisons to Hitler.” He called the Republican candidate “America's Hitler.”
“Tell that to J.D. Vance. He said that in a text message a few years ago, and he doesn't deny it,” Berman said.
Mr. Vance has since retracted his critical comments and wholeheartedly accepted Mr. Trump, saying, “I was wrong about Donald Trump.”
During the interview, Berman pressed Hagerty about the audio recording, asking if he had any idea what President Trump was praising about Adolf Hitler.
Hagerty disagreed with Trump's praise of Hitler, instead focusing on the “respect” the former president showed the U.S. military during a visit to Japanese senators.
“Well, I don't agree with Trump praising Adolf Hitler, because all you know is General Kelly's comments again. [not] “He is not on good terms with President Trump and has a consistently unfavorable record against him,” Hagerty said.
“President Trump has visited me three times, and we always met with military personnel there, and I have nothing but the utmost respect for both President Trump's respect for military personnel and his love and respect for President Trump.” I haven't seen anything, that's what I know,'' Hagerty added, referring to his visit to Japan.
When Mr. Berman asked Mr. Hagerty if Mr. Kerry had ever lied to the senator about anything, Mr. Hagerty replied, “I have no idea that Mr. John Kerry has ever lied to me about anything.'' ” he answered.
Mr. Berman again asked the senator why Mr. Hagerty would doubt what Mr. Kelly was saying on the recording, since he had never lied before.
“Because it completely contradicts my experience with President Trump, and because there have been articles published about 'Losers' and what was allegedly said at Normandy, I have no reason to doubt it.” I immediately called the ambassador,” Hagerty said. President Trump was referring to past comments in which he is said to have called fallen American soldiers buried in French cemeteries “losers” and “sucks,” allegations that Trump has previously denied.
“Again, these are old stories that are being drugged, of course, within two weeks of the election,” Hagerty added, saying these comments are being brought up now to “deflect and deflect.” Ta.
