As the campaign heads into the final stretch with less than ten days to go before Election Day, former President Donald Trump is facing fresh accusations he praised Adolf Hitler.
But with early voting already underway, his Republican supporters are rejecting the latest allegations.
More than 38 million people have voted in the election already.
Early in-person voting kicked off in Michigan on Saturday with a steady stream of Trump supporters showing up to cast their ballots for the ex-president.
They dismissed the reported Hitler praise as ‘hogwash’ and slammed Trump’s former White House chief of staff retired General John Kelly who shared his account of it.
Voters waiting in line the cast ballots in the 2024 election on the first day of early in-person voting in Michigan on October 26
Kelly made the allegations in a recent interview with The New York Times.
The retired Marine Corps general said he had admonished Trump multiple times for admiring statements like ‘Hitler did some good things too.’
Kelly made similar remarks in an recent interview with The Atlantic.
Trump’s rival Vice President Kamala Harris seized on the reports calling Trump a fascist and warning he will claim unchecked power if reelected.
The ex-president has denied the accusations. And his supporters showing up to vote in the battleground state were following his lead or signaled they did not care.
Former President Donald Trump with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly on October 18, 2024. In recent interviews, the retired Marine general said he had to admonish the ex-president for praising Hitler in conversations while in office
‘Sure he talked about Hitler in a positive light, but he’s talking about some of those things that even though [Hitler’s] a POS, he did some good things for Germany before it went off the rails,’ said Chris Bandelier, 57, from Kalamazoo.
‘So that’s what I think what he refers to when he talks about Hitler,’ he said.
Bandelier’s priority when he showed up to vote early for the ex-president was to ‘try and stop the election from being stolen.’
John Vasquez 42, also came out to vote for Trump on the first day of early voting.
‘Trump’s stance as far as Hitler, that’s a joke,’ he said. ‘Trump did more for Israel than any other government for Israel in how long? ‘He did everything for them. Why would he be Hitler and against them? It makes no sense to me.’
‘Hogwash,’ declared Dennis Bourdo. ‘I didn’t see dictatorship things, Nazi things when Trump was in office.’
He and wife Christina said they think people have already made up their minds despite the recent Kelly interviews.
‘He makes it clear almost in every one of his rallies that he loves America,’ claimed Christina Bourdo. ‘I didn’t see that in his previous four years where he was trying to control [America].’
She pointed out that Kelly, a retired four star general, was fired by Trump and suggested that’s why he made the claims.
Her main reason in voting for Trump early she said was because she aligns more with his beliefs and is against abortion ‘right up to birth.’
Early in-person voting kicked off in Michigan on October 26. A series of Trump supporters showing up to cast ballots dismissed the reports of Trump praising Hitler as they voted for the ex-president
Matt Valkner, 49, said both candidates have been negative and he just wished they would ‘expound on things that are positive about their campaigns.’
He claimed his vote for Trump was to ‘make America great again and get back into more manufacturing in the U.S.’
Manufacturing jobs had been increasing in the U.S. for the six years prior to 2016 when Trump was first elected.
But the upward trajectory actually took a downturn during Trump’s first term even before the pandemic hit in 2020.
While Trump supporters dismissed the reports of Hitler praise, Harris supporters casting ballots early were in disbelief that Republicans are not taking the remarks more seriously.
Zachary Willoughby, 25, cast his ballot on the first day of early in-person voting for Harris.
He is expecting a baby girl and wants a president who won’t ‘brag about taking away reproductive rights and found liable of sexual abuse.’
He is expecting a baby girl and wants a president who won’t ‘brag about taking away reproductive rights and found liable of sexual abuse.’
‘I want to say I’m shocked, but I’m not,’ he said of Trump’s reported comments on Hitler.
‘Praising autocrats and dictators isn’t something that we should do in the United States,’ he said.
‘A lot of people don’t really pay attention to the news headlines or aren’t really trusting any news headlines that come out right now, and I think they should because that’s something that’s very concerning.’
Diane Rice, 63, who also cast her ballot for Harris simply shook her head. She does not understand how voting for Trump is even a choice.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk