Of all the many critics of Donald Trump, John Kelly — his former White House chief of staff — is arguably the most credible … and that’s why the Media Research Center felt it had to work harder than usual to shout it down. Curtis Houck howled in an Oct. 23 post:
ABC’s Good Morning America went full bore against half the country on Wednesday, going all out with over 10 minutes (10:28) of hyperbolic tailspins eagerly touting as fact wild claims from former White House chief of staff John Kelly that Donald Trump is a fascist, danger to democracy and the American people, and enthralled with Adolf Hitler.
In turn, they hurled nothing but venom toward Trump and his supporters as they were calmly soothed by Vice President Harris’s camp.
Co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos — who views defeating Trump as a duty — gushed over the “truly extraordinary breaking news this morning” of Kelly “speaking out with things you have never heard before from someone who has served a president.”
“He says Donald Trump fits the definition of a fascist. He says Donald Trump praised Adolf Hitler, demeaned American war heroes, calls Donald Trump a man who would govern like a dictator if allowed,” he added.
Fact-check: Pants on fire. A simple internet search would reveal Kelly first leveled these claims in August 2022 in a book for liberal elitist snobs Peter Baker and Susan Glasser and doubled down in March 2024 to CNN tool and former Obama official Jim Sciutto.
Correspondent Rachel Scott — who has a idolatrous level of hate for Trump — eagerly shared that Kelly has “paint[ed] a picture of a former President and Republican nominee who has no regard for the Constitution or rule of law, warning that he would rule as a dictator if he could” and a “fascist”.
Scott not only invoked Kelly’s tall tales about Hitler, but implied Trump is pining for a genocide: “Kelly describing how Trump would praise Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, who orchestrated the systematic murder of six million Jews and caused World War II.”
Houck offered no evidence that Kelly was telling “tall tales,” showing the he has an idolatrous level of hate for Kelly, Scott, and anyone who tells the truth about Trump.
Houck raged further later that day:
Although nowhere near the ten and a half minutes ABC’s Good Morning America cranked out Wednesday seething over (years-old) claims from former White House chief of staff John Kelly that former President Trump is a fascist and Hitler enthusiast, CBS Mornings (2:57) and NBC’s Today (2:58) still spoonfed their viewers with coverage of the “disturbing,” “startling,” and “stark” allegations.
“Startling revelations from a former White House chief of staff who says based on what he witnessed, Donald Trump would rule like a dictator,” announced co-host and Kamala Harris donor Gayle King in the Eye Opener.
CBS co-host Tony Dokoupil moments later called Kelly’s claims to The Atlantic and The New York Times “a blunt warning about former President Donald Trump from someone who knows him very well” that “Trump demands loyalty to himself over the Constitution, repeatedly sought to use the U.S. military against American citizens, and even expressed admiration for Hitler on more than one occasion.”
Trump campaign correspondent Nikole Killion bragged that Trump’s schedule included two events in Georgia, but bragged “those comments from John Kelly…are overshadowing his visit.”
Killion ran through the major hits about fascism, Hitler, and his response to Trump’s “enemy form within” remark. She at least noted, along with a strong denial by the Trump campaign, that Trump had long soured on Kelly and blasted him in August as “one of the dumbest people I’ve ever met” and “a bully.”
[…]Over on NBC, co-host Savannah Guthrie (falsely) described Kelly’s claims in a tease as “new, disturbing allegations.”
The Kelly segment had to wait since senior Washington correspondent Hallie Jackson had been granted a day earlier an interview with Harris. Jackson played a number of clips from the cha and sprinkled in other filler about the campaign, including “Obama hitting the campaign trail” with Eminem and delivered a few lines from the latter’s famous track, Lose Yourself.
To her credit, Jackson was the only network correspondent to mention President Biden chanting “lock him up” in reference to wanting to see Trump jailed.
Eventually, Trump campaign correspondent Garrett Haake got his turn, cheering Kelly’s (rehashed) tales as being on tape and made sure to play up Kelly’s credibility to level this “dire warning” about a “fascist” Trump since he’s a Gold Star father.
Tim Graham helped Houck whine about this in his Oct. 23 podcast:
The networks also touted a new New York Times interview of former Trump chief of staff John Kelly. They captured the audio so the clips could air on national TV. ABC’s George Stephanopoulos hyped Kelly “speaking out with things you have never heard before from someone who has served a president.”
As in? “He says Donald Trump fits the definition of a fascist. He says Donald Trump praised Adolf Hitler, demeaned American war heroes, calls Donald Trump a man who would govern like a dictator if allowed.”
Fact-check: Pants on fire. Curtis Houck did a simple internet search, which revealed Kelly first leveled these claims in August 2022 in a book for liberal Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, and doubled down in March 2024 to CNN host and former Obama official Jim Sciutto.
Neither Graham nor Houck explained why it matters that Kelly had previously made those statements. Then it was Jorge Bonilla’s turn to whine:
Of course we saw this coming. With Election Day less than two weeks away, the Regime Media are pulling out all the stops, and promoting all manner of questionable stories related to former President Donald Trump in a quest to create a late October Surprise and drag Vice President Kamala Harris over the finish line.
Watch ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir’s breathless introduction to Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce’s report, in yet ANOTHER overwrought minute-long brief that could’ve been its own report[.]
These allegations are in service of the atrocious hit piece in The Atlantic which alleges, per unnamed sources, that Trump claimed to want generals as loyal as Hitler’s, both of which served as the factual bases behind Harris’s statement at her official residence and, ostensibly, her “closing argument” speech next week.
The media firefought the obvious question people ask themselves when hearing shocking allegations conveniently timed for release just before a presidential election: “why now?” In this case, Trump’s “enemy within” remarks were what compelled Kelly to find his nerve after all these years.
Bonilla is never going to ask himself why he refuses to take Kelly’s allegations at face value — he’s supporting a felon and rapist as president, after all, and is not interesting in dealing with that pesky conscience.
Mark Finkelstein took his own shot at the narrative, grumbling over the argument that reporting Kelly’s observations is not a sign of hate:
On CNN’s Wednesday night town hall, Kamala Harris enthusiastically defined Trump as a “fascist.”
And The Atlantic conveniently happened to publish an article in the closing days of the campaign with former Trump chief of staff John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, also using that f-word on Trump, and associating Trump with Hitler.
In the mind of CNN host Kasie Hunt, that doesn’t mean that Kamala’s closing message is “hate Trump!” Definitely not! No way!
[…]Hunt was trying to support Kamala by noting she was citing John Kelly, because when you really turn on Trump, you’ve really pleased CNN. “I think it’s worth noting that John Kelly, who has devoted his life to service to the country, he lost, lost a child in service of the country, and he was in the room for a considerable amount of time in the Trump administration.”
So, if Kamala’s message isn’t “hate Trump,” just what is Kasie claiming? That Kamala is calling Trump a fascist because she thinks it will make people like him? Spill, Kasie: America wants to know!
Of course, we can thus safely assume that Finkelstein is filled with hatred for Hunt simply for accurately reporting Kelly’s remarks.
Houck raged even more in another morning-TV recap:
On Thursday morning, the “Big Three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC remained enthralled with the tales spun by former White House chief of staff John Kelly about former President Trump as an alleged fascist and supposed Adolf Hitler enthusiast.
ABC’s Good Morning America still led the way with over six minutes (6:08), including a lead-off report from Disney’s in-house North Korean news lady for the Harris regime, Mary Bruce.
She fawned over Harris “ramping up her argument” about Trump with an assist from Kelly. Somehow, Bruce found it within herself to admit Harris spent much of the CNN town hall attacking Trump instead of stating what she’s for.
[…]CBS Mornings also tried to make hay with Kelly’s media blitz whining to the far-left Atlantic and New York Times, but only gave it about 90 seconds (1:33).
Co-host and Kamala Harris donor Gayle King argued Harris and Trump are engaged in “two very different strategies in these final days” with the former “courting the moderates” by focusing on Trump as a danger to the country with Trump only “focus[ed]…on his own base.”
[…]As for NBC’s Today, co-host Craig Melvin had to throw in a nod at the start of the show before a lead off segment on the Boeing strike: “Vice President Harris in Pennsylvania last night for a town hall, doubling down on comments from a one-time member of former President Trump’s inner circle calling him a fascist. Meanwhile, Trump at an event in battleground Georgia, looking to flip the script a bit, saying Harris is the threat to democracy. We’ve got it all covered in just a bit.”
Senior Washington correspondent Hallie Jackson declared “Donald Trump on attack..as former Trump officials and the Harris campaign highlighted why they see him as an existential threat” with Kelly their latest wave of support.
Jackson at least pointed out Harris was so obsessed with the Trump fascism angle that she even urged voters to set aside considering a third party over the war in the Middle East because Trump is that dangerous.
Clay Waters played the old-news narrative in his own post:
News Hour anchor Geoff Bennett segued from the evening’s lead campaign story, much of which was devoted to a New York Times audio interview of Gen. John Kelly, former Trump White House chief of staff and current liberal media military hero of the day. Kelly compared Trump to a fascist based on comments the former president made about Hitler that no one else apparently heard — alleged statements made during a presidency now four years past.
And this is nothing new from Kelly either: Curtis Houck revealed that Kelly first leveled his “Hitler” claims in August 2022 in a book for husband-and-wife reporting team Peter Baker (New York Times) and Susan Glasser (The New Yorker).
Houck was still at it in an Oct. 25 post:
ABC’s Good Morning America not only continued to try and make fetch happen with scaring and shaming voters into voting for Vice President Harris instead of former President Trump with more fawning over former Trump chief of staff John Kelly’s tall tales about his former boss being a fascist and Adolf Hitler enthusiast, but also tried to dial up the gush for Harris “calling on her biggest celebrity supporters” and “promising to put Americans first.”
[…]After complaining about Trump’s promise to fire Special Counsel Jack Smith, Scott went back to the well of Kelly’s partisan posturing, suggesting he’s telling the truth and thus he shouldn’t be questioned because he “served his country for decades” and is a Gold Star father.
[…]Stephanopoulos even tried to have political director Rick Klein make the argument that Kelly’s (years-old) claims about Trump being a fascist will move the needle for voters toward Harris:
Again, Houck didn’t explain the relevance of complaining Kelly has made these claims before. It’s as if he’s desperately trying to downplay the relevance and gravity of his accusations.