OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — We are less than 2 weeks out from the election and recent statements by Donald Trump’s former White House chief of staff are making headlines. The New York Times reporting John Kelly said Trump spoke positively of Hitler.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Falls into the definition of fascist and prefers the dictator approach to government. These are the words of Trump's former White House Chief-of-Staff John Kelly to the New York Times.
The paper posted clips of the interviews in the article, Including Trump speaking about Hitler.
"He commented more than once that, 'You know, Hitler did some good things, too," John Kelly said to the New York Times.
Trump has endorsed Republicans Pete Ricketts, Deb Fischer, Mike Flood, and Don Bacon.
Reporter Molly Hudson asked Don Bacon about Trump’s comments.
"If the president was serious when he said those comments, he's wrong. Now, I've been around him a lot, he says a lot of stuff for effect, a lot of things I don't think he really means. But you can't be saying those things and run for president, so he rightfully gets criticized,” Bacon said.
“Is trump a good American leader?" reporter Molly Hudson asked.
"I think you get mixed results, there. I would say he won his primary, Harris has never won a primary, ever," Bacon said.
Bacon told Molly he continues to support the former president.
I also asked Mike Flood, Deb Fischer and Pete Ricketts and a Trump campaign spokesperson for an interview about these comments. I'm still waiting for a response.
Vice president Kamala Harris addressed the report Wednesday.
"It is deeply troubling and incredibly dangerous that Donald Trump would invoke Adolf Hitler, the man who is responsible for the deaths of 6 million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Americans,” Harris said.
This is a new campaign focal point as we enter its final days.
While the Trump campaign didn't respond to my request for an interview about John Kelly’s comments yet either, we did speak this week about the local push in Omaha.
"Obviously Nebraska is at the top of our list because we know it's not a winner-take-all state, right, it's a state that we have to be in, it's voters whose votes we have earn, right, we are all about making sure that we actually earn the votes of the American people and don't just rely on them every four years," said Elizabeth Pipko, GOP national spokeswoman.
So far, Trump nor Vance has held a recent public event in the metro.
Campaign surrogates RFK Jr. And Tulsi Gabbard spoke in downtown Omaha Saturday night.
"Can we expect Trump or Vance to come to Omaha at all or will it mostly be the surrogates of the party?” reporter Molly Hudson asked.
“Donald Trump loves to make these decisions himself he's not a man that looks to his advisers or strategy, right, he has a gut instinct of where he needs to be, where he wants to be,” Pipko said.
