Satirical news programThe Daily Show tore into Fox News anchor Brian Kilmeade on Wednesday, after the broadcaster tried to defend Donald Trump in the wake of reporting that he allegedly praised Adolf Hitler in the White House.
“He obviously has frustration, and I could absolutely see him going out, ‘You know what? It would be great to have German generals [that] actually do what we asked them to do,’” Kilmeade told panelists on Fox & Friends. “Knowing that, maybe not fully being cognizant of the third rail of German generals were Nazis and whatever. But he was frustrated with the slowdown.”
“Did you just ‘whatever’ the Holocaust?” Daily Show host Michael Kosta asked during a segment on the controversy. “’Whatever’ is for insignificant things, like when you put the plastic recycling in the paper recycling. It’s not, ‘Oops I did a genocide.’ I like that Kilmeade thinks praising Hitler is a third rail, like it’s a taboo subject that’s not p.c. to discuss at the office anymore.”
Kosta then joked that the History Channel, famous for its reams of WWII documentaries, should start making programs with titles like Defeating the Fuhrer: Who, To be Clear, Was the Bad Guy, to clear things up for people who thought a genocidal fascist like Hitler had redeeming qualities.
The Late Show’s Stephen Colbert also did a routine about the alleged comments on Wednesday. The comedian said Trump praising a fascist wasn’t even that much of a surprise.
“So this is less of an October surprise and more of an early autumn no s***,” he said.
“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to say, ‘I need the kind of generals Hitler had,’ and still somehow be statistically tied in all the battleground states,” he added.
The controversy began with two high-profile media reports. In one, from The Atlantic, former staff claimed Trump once said, “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had.” In another, from The New York Times, former Trump chief of staff and Marine Corps general John Kelly claimed Trump met the definition of a fascist and had praised Hitler as having done “some good things.”
The Trump campaign has said claims he wished for Hitler’s generals are “absolutely false.”
On Wednesday night, the former president said in a statement on Truth Social that Kelly’s claims were “lies,” trashing his former administration colleague as a “total degenerate” and a “LOWLIFE.”
In the wake of the alleged claims, Kamala Harris accused her rival of having become “increasingly unhinged and unstable.”
“Donald Trump said that because he does not want a military that is loyal to the United States Constitution, he wants a military that is loyal to him,” Harris said on Wednesday.
Trump has alarmed observers by embracing ideas associated with fascists, from talking about sending the military to domestically attack a left-wing “enemy within,” to claiming migrants are “destroying the blood” of America.