"Fascist"
Zander's Weekend Facts #142 - Sunday, October 27, 2024
At a CNN town hall in Pennsylvania on Wednesday night, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for President of the United States, responded “Yes, I do” to the question of “Do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?”
It is one thing for a major presidential candidate to call her main opponent a term that is most commonly associated with Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Benito Mussolini’s Fascist Italy - although its notability should not be lost in the cloud of the nearing election. It is another when respected individuals who worked directly with the former president are using the same language.
Retired Marine Corps general John Kelly, who served as the longest-serving (of four) White House chief of staff in the Trump White House, raised a firestorm when he gave a series of interviews to The New York Times that were published on Monday. Speaking of former President Donald Trump when asked: “Do you think he’s a fascist?”, Kelly answered:
“Well, looking at the definition of fascism: It’s a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy.
“So certainly, in my experience, those are the kinds of things that he thinks would work better in terms of running America.
“Certainly the former president is in the far-right area, he’s certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators — he has said that. So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure.”
Previously, Kelly had been a source of the infamous Trump quotes that emerged from a 2020 article in The Atlantic, in which Trump referred to Americans who had died on the battlefield in Europe during World War II as “suckers” and “losers.” Kelly expanded on this account in these interviews, telling the Times that “The time in Paris was not the only time that he ever said it.” He added, “Whenever John McCain’s name came up, he’d go through this rant about him being a loser, and all those people were suckers, and why do you people think that people getting killed are heroes? And he’d go through this rant.”
Retired Army general Mark Milley, who served as the chief of staff of the Army from 2015 to 2019 and subsequently the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff until last year, expressed similar sentiments when speaking to author and associate editor of The Washington Post Bob Woodward for his new book, “War”. Milley did not mince words, saying “No one has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump.” “Now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is the most dangerous person to this country.”
Milley described the former president as a “fascist to the core.”
The fallout of these comments has included Trump referring to Milley as a “Woke train-wreck” who “clearly suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome and it's no surprise he pals around with a washed-up fiction writer like Bob Woodward to peddle lies and misinformation.” Earlier this week, he called Kelly a “degenerate” and said “He was tough and dumb. John Kelly is a low life.”
Yet, it’s important to recall that Trump once had much different views of these generals. In 2019, when Trump appointed Milley to be the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he remarked that Milley “is living proof that the American warfighter is the toughest, smartest and bravest, best and brightest by far anywhere in the world.” When Trump selected Kelly as his chief of staff two years prior, he said that Kelly “will go down, in terms of the position of chief of staff, one of the great ever”, and tweeted that Kelly is a “Great American and a Great Leader.”
Throwing around terms such as “fascist” have consequences. Using these labels may feel insignificant in an era where a political candidate, the one being deemed a fascist, in fact, receives little flak for declaring his opponent a “shit vice president” and “retarded”. Yet, when it arrives from the mouths of four- and five-star generals who understand the gravity that their words carry, it should rise above and beyond the political fray.
Not to mention that Trump himself has referred to his opponent as a “Marxist, communist, fascist, socialist”, apparently disregarding that each of those terms have very different meanings, none of which accurately describe the views of Kamala Harris.
Kelly also remarked to The New York Times that Trump “prefers the dictator approach to government.”
“He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too.”
“He’s certainly the only president that has all but rejected what America is all about, and what makes America America, in terms of our Constitution, in terms of our values, the way we look at everything, to include family and government — he’s certainly the only president that I know of, certainly in my lifetime, that was like that.”
Kelly’s actions, a former Marine Corps general and White House chief of staff speaking to the country’s largest newspaper with days remaining in the presidential campaign to warn of the dangers of his former boss, are unprecedented. And never before has the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff stated with such emphasis that a candidate for President of the United States represents a threat to the Constitution.
When the nation’s highest-ranking military officer who served in administrations of both major political parties declares an individual as “the most dangerous person to this country”, take a moment to listen.
For more information on this week’s top story, here’s an article from the Associated Press - What is fascism? And why does Harris say Trump is a fascist?
What Zander’s been reading
While speculation had been widespread that foreign governments would attempt to influence this year’s presidential election in the United States, intelligence agencies are already confirming that the Russian government is spreading misinformation.
Just this week, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence stated that social media posts falsely accusing Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, of inappropriate activity when he was a teacher, came from Russia. Then on Friday, the FBI confirmed that Russia is also behind a fake video showing ballots marked for former President Donald Trump being destroyed.
Check out this week’s featured articles:
NPR - U.S. intel officials say Russia is behind attempts to smear Tim Walz
NPR - Russia is behind fake video of ballots being destroyed, U.S. officials say
Zander’s Facts Sporting Club
Here are the latest headlines from the sports world in the Sporting Club:
NFL Week 8: The eighth week of the NFL season opened on Thursday night with a surprise win for the Rams, taking down the Vikings 30-20. Today’s slate begins at 1:00 pm ET with games including Eagles-Bengals, Colts-Texans, Falcons-Buccaneers, and Ravens-Browns. In the 4:00 pm ET window, the Saints take on the Chargers, the Bills face the Seahawks, the Chiefs visit the Raiders, and the Commanders host the Bears. At 8:20 pm ET, the Cowboys travel west to take on the 49ers. Week 8 concludes on Monday night as the Steelers host the Giants at 8:15 pm ET.
College Football Week 9: In the most anticipated game of college football’s week nine, a second-half comeback fueled #14 Texas A&M to beat #8 LSU at home 38-23. Also in the SEC, #5 Texas survived a trip to #25 Vanderbilt 27-24, #15 Alabama blanked #21 Missouri 34-0, and #18 Ole Miss beat Oklahoma 26-14. Elsewhere, #3 Penn State took down Wisconsin 28-13, #13 Indiana remained undefeated with a 31-17 win over Washington, and #11 BYU beat UCF 37-14. Plus, #12 Notre Dame dominated #24 Navy 51-14, #4 Ohio State came back to beat Nebraska 21-17, and #22 SMU took down Duke in overtime 28-27.
MLB World Series: The Los Angeles Dodgers have taken both games played so far of the Major League Baseball World Series over the New York Yankees. The Dodgers won Game 1 6-3 off of a 10th-inning grand slam by Freddie Freeman, while a three-run third inning gave Los Angeles a 4-2 victory in Game 2. The series shifts to New York for Games 3-5, with Game 3 taking place on Monday and Game 4 on Tuesday. If New York is able to win at least one of the next two games, Game 5 will take place on Wednesday. If needed, Games 6 and 7 will take place in Los Angeles on Friday and Saturday, respectively. All World Series games will begin at 8:08 pm ET and air on Fox.
WNBA Finals: The New York Liberty won their first WNBA title in franchise history with an overtime win in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals. The Liberty took down the Minnesota Lynx 67-62 in overtime, winning the championship for the first time after five previous appearances in the WNBA Finals. Jonquel Jones led the Liberty with 17 points in Game 5 and was named Finals MVP after averaging 17.8 points throughout the five-game series. The WNBA season, which was highlighted by a renewed popularity in the league thanks to new stars such as Caitlin Clark, ended with a bang as Game 5 was the most watched WNBA Finals game since 1999.
Rapid-fire Facts
Here’s a recap of the top news headlines from the past week:
Presidential Election: There are nine days until Election Day in the United States, with polling in the presidential race continuing to indicate a close contest. Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris was joined by celebrities such as Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen, and former President Barack Obama at rallies, while former President Donald Trump took part in an interview on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. Get all the latest election headlines from the Associated Press link below, and make sure you have a plan to vote by going to Vote.org.
International Conflicts: Major developments took place last week in two international conflicts. In the Middle East, Israel launched retaliatory strikes against Iran early Saturday morning. Israel attacked Iranian military targets in response to Iran’s launching of over 200 ballistic missiles toward Israel earlier this month. In the Russian-Ukrainian war, Japan, South Korea, and the U.S. expressed “grave concern” after North Korean troops were stationed in Russia last week for their possible involvement in the war. White House national security spokesman John Kirby said that the arms and missile transfers between North Korea and Russia violate U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Newspaper Endorsements: Two major U.S. newspapers, the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post, declined to endorse any candidate in this year’s presidential election. Political endorsements typically come from a newspaper’s editorial section, separate from the news-gathering section. Both papers endorsed President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. The publisher of the Los Angeles Times, Patrick Soon-Shiong, blocked the paper’s editorial board from endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, leading the Times’s editorials editor, Mariel Garza, to resign. The owner of The Washington Post, Jeff Bezos, reportedly blocked the paper from making an endorsement, with editor-at-large Robert Kagan resigning from the paper as a result.
McDonald’s E. coli: An outbreak of E. coli that has been linked to Quarter Pounder burgers from McDonald’s grew last week to include 75 cases. McDonald’s, the world’s largest fast-food chain, has said that sliced onions originating from a Taylor Farms facility in Colorado Springs are to blame. Cases have been reported in 13 states, including Colorado and Montana, with the CDC noting that illnesses occurred between September 27 and October 10. At least one death has been attributed to the outbreak and 22 people have been hospitalized.
Virginia Voter Roll: A federal judge blocked the Commonwealth of Virginia from removing over 1,600 alleged noncitizens from its voter rolls on Friday. The Department of Justice previously sued the state’s election officials after the state removed people from its voter rolls within 90 days of an election, a violation of the National Voter Registration Act. Virginia announced on Friday that it will appeal the ruling.
Wrapping up the Facts
That’s a wrap on this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts. The Facts in print return next Sunday, November 3, 2024.