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.”
Scott left no stone unturned, playing one soundbite after another from Kelly’s phone conversations with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg and The New York Times’s Michael Schmidt (who’s married to MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace) and gave zero time to anything Trump said Tuesday about the 2024 race (click “expand”):
KELLY: He commented more than once that, you know, that Hitler did some of those things, too.
SCOTT: Kelly’s on-the-record, first-hand accounts following similar reporting in The Atlantic, including a private conversation at the White House where, according to Kelly, Trump asked why his generals couldn’t “be more like” Hitler’s generals.
KELLY: Well, I would tell him that, sir, you know, first of all you should never say that. But if you knew what Hitler was all about, from the beginning to the end, everything he did was in support of this racist, fascist, life, you know — the — you know, philosophy, so that nothing he did you could argue was good.
SCOTT: The Trump campaign calling that an outrageous lie. Just as The New York Times published their interview with Kelly, Trump was on stage in Greensboro, North Carolina praising authoritarian leaders like Chinese President Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
TRUMP: He’s smart. He’s a smart man. He’s a fierce man. I got along with him very well. Putin, these are people that are tough people.
SCOTT: Kelly insisting to The Times, if given the chance, Trump would rule as a dictator himself.
KELLY: Oh, I think he’d, you know, love to be just like he was in business. He could tell people to do things and they would do it and not really bother too much about whether — what the legalities were.
SCOTT: Kelly also says Trump often questioned why people would serve the country in uniform and referred to service members who were injured or killed as losers and suckers multiple times, something the former President has repeatedly denied.
KELLY: His not wanting to be seen with amputees — amputees that lost their limbs in defense of this country fighting for every American to — him included, to protect him, but didn’t want to be seen with them.
SCOTT: Kelly, a retired four star marine general, who spent 45 years in uniform, lost his own son to combat in Afghanistan. He was handpicked by Trump to lead the Department of Homeland Security before serving as his longest chief of staff.
TRUMP: General Kelly will go down, in terms of the position of chief of staff, one of the great ever.
SCOTT: He says he made the decision to speak out now after Trump talked about using the military against what he calls the enemy within.
TRUMP [on FNC’s Sunday Morning Futures, on 10/13/24]: I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they’re the — should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard or, if really necessary, by the military.
SCOTT: In a statement, the Trump campaign writing, “John Kelly has totally beclowned himself,” calling the stories “fabricated,” and adding “Trump has always honored the service and sacrifice of all of our military men and women.”
Scott ended with a laughably absurd claim from Kelly:
ABC’s Rachel Scott: “John Kelly insists he is not trying to tell people how to vote, but he is asking this country to consider character over policy, George.”
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 23, 2024
George Stephanopoulos: “And that all comes from someone who served former President Trump.” pic.twitter.com/1bOV1a9gvC
After the two hurled more invective (this time about rumored Attorney General candidates) at a man who’s been nearly assassinated twice, ABC gave a few moments to the fluff the pillows of Harris’s campaign.
Of course, Mary Bruce obliged:
Here was as sample of how ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ covered the Kamala Harris campaign in between its two opening segments oozing over John Kelly.
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 23, 2024
Mary Bruce -- Disney's in-house North Korean news lady for Kamala Harris -- was on the case, fawning over Harris being “focused… pic.twitter.com/7vftsgobhR
Bruce was so predictable that she had to end with celebrities, cheering the Obamas and Bruce Springsteen.
Stephanopoulos took back control of what would be nearly 10 minutes straight of campaign coverage and brought in three-time anti-Trump author Jonathan Karl for more fear-mongering.
“One of the things you’ve reported in your books. I have reported it in my book as well. We’ve seen it again today: some of the most damning critiques of Donald Trump’s character and competence come from those who served in these top national security positions,” Stephanopoulos solemnly huffed.
Karl has more money to bank in book sales to Resistance liberals, so he needs more grist to keep readers hiding under their covers and lamented “[t]he most damning critiques of Donald Trump and the most dire warnings about what it would mean if he came back into the White House came from people who served him closest in his administration in the most sensitive and important positions.”
He even came with a graphic of former officials who’ve, at a minimum, voiced dismay with Trump.
For good measure, Karl trotted out another anonymous source who believes Trump is guilty of treason. Karl obviously ignored how the implication of that would be such a crime would be punishable by death (click “expand”):
Let me just go through a few of them. I’ve written them down so I don’t leave any out, but I’m going to leave some out because there are a lot. Obviously, there are his former Vice President. There’s Rex Tillerson, who was his secretary of state, Bill Barr, who was attorney general, John Kelly, Mark Milley, Mark Esper, who was his defense secretary, Jim Mattis, who was his earlier defense secretary, Dan Coats who was in charge of the national intelligence. All of these people have come out to issue dire warnings about Donald Trump. And, George, it — I have to say, it’s not just the people who have come out publicly. A lot of others, and you can see they are not endorsing Trump, but they’re not speaking publicly. They are worried about feed back. Let just me read something that — an anonymous, very top official who spent every day time with Donald Trump, served many years in the administration, told me about Donald Trump: “Trump lacks any shred of any decency, humility, or caring. He is traitor and a malignancy on our nation and represents a clear and present danger to our democracy and rule of law.” Again, that is somebody who, just like Jon Kelly, who was with Trump every day for more than a year in the White House.
Stephanopoulos had more anxiety to cause among his superficial audience, which ended with him telling Karl that, if Trump were to become president, “[t]he guardrails” of our democracy in these former officials would “be gone” (click “expand”):
STEPHANOPOULOS: Traitor. Let’s put that graphic back up there cause I want to make a point here of when see that graphic of all the people who have surrounded Donald Trump, these are people who were in The Situation Room during the times of crisis. If Donald Trump is election [sic] again, none of those people will be there?
KARL: Well, I have spoken to Trump many times about some of the people that have crossed him and I asked him what his next administration would be like. What he told me is he didn’t know anybody. He had to rely on advice to hire people last time. Now he knows people. He will put people in who are loyal to him. He will put people that will carry out his orders.
STEPHANOPOULOS: The guardrails will be gone. Jon Karl, thanks very much. Robin.
ROBERTS: Thank you, both.
For good measure, Stephanopoulos reiterated the topline talking points in a news brief to begin the second half-hour and, for the second hour, he brought Scott and Bruce for more pom-pom waving.
To see the relevant ABC transcript from October 23, click here.
