Let's be clear: Anthony "The Mooch" Scaramucci wants you to know he isn't comparing congressional Republicans to Hitler—just to the people who collaborated with Hitler!
Scaramucci was back on CNN this morning for one of his regular Trump-bashing fests with Alisyn Camerota. Who calls this show New Day? It feels more like Groundhog Day.
The Mooch is of course President Trump's quondam communications director, who, having been defenestrated after a tenure record-breaking for its brevity, has turned into one of the president's most bitter antagonists.
Scaramucci vilified the congressional Republicans supporting President Trump as "Vichy Republicans," thus analogizing them to the French collaborators with the Nazis. Camerota suggested "that's a really strong charge." Mooch claimed he wasn't comparing anybody to Hitler. Right. Just to the people who collaborated with Hitler.
Scaramucci also compared President Trump to OJ, saying Simpson wasn't caught for the murders, but for another offense. The Trump-OJ analogy has become something of an MSM trope, Chuck Todd having used it two weeks ago.
For good measure, The Mooch accused President Trump of being a "traitor" to the Constitution.
Hell hath no fury like a Trump aide scorned!
Note: Camerota is apparently not an avid student of WWII history. When Scaramucci first called the congressional GOP "Vichy Republicans," she asked, apparently bewildered, "what?" When Scaramucci asked if she remembered the Vichy Republic, she murmured, "I don't remember."
Here's the transcript.
CNN
New Day
12/2/19
7:26 am ETALISYN CAMEROTA: Your fellow Republicans call this [the impeachment process] a sham. What do you think?
ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI: Look, the original John Kennedy wrote Profiles in Courage.
CAMEROTA: The other John Kennedy [in contrast wtih Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Lousiana, a Trump defender.]
SCARAMUCCI: The other John Kennedy. These current Republicans are writing Profiles in Cowardice . . . Five years from now, people are going to look back and say, what exactly were you doing? You had a fever going on related to President Trump . . . The guy broke the law, he's a traitor to the Constitution of the United States. You took an oath to the Constitution. You took an oath to the Constitution, and you're going to disavow it for him?
. . .
When you and I first talked about this in August, I said the guy's nuts, he's going to do something really stupid. It's a Trump-noble [?] meltdown. All of that unfolded. They didn't get OJ on the original murder, but they got him on the sports memorabilia, okay. This is like classically what President Trump has done. So he's been caught now in the Ukraine scandal, and his only defense right now is if he can just get the Republicans to hold the line and accept his illegality.
. . .
But now you've got a group of -- they're like Vichy Republicans.
CAMEROTA: What?
SCARAMUCCI: You remember the Vichy Republic?
CAMEROTA: I don't remember.
SCARAMUCCI: Okay, so when Hitler took over Paris, and took over France, there was a Vichy group of French that were helping him administrate the French government.
CAMEROTA: I mean, that's really strong. I mean, that's really a strong, that's a strong charge.
SCARAMUCCI: They're Vichy Republicans. I'm not comparing anybody to Hitler, I'm not suggesting that. I'm just suggesting they're falling in line in a way that is really despicable as it relates to the Constitution.
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