Late Tuesday evening, as we previously wrote, one of the anonymously sourced accusations in the hit piece by The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was sent to unraveling in mere moments, after the family of murdered Spc. Vanessa Guillen learned that the soldier’s death was used in a gross political attack on GOP nominee Donald Trump just two weeks before the presidential election.
Joining the voices of the Guillens and their family attorney were numerous officials who were in the room when Trump and the family members spoke about their loved one and the potential plans for her funeral, including Trump’s then-White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, RedState’s Neil McCabe wrote, who said that the former president was respectful at all times:
“I was in the discussions featured in the Atlantic’s latest hit piece against President Trump. Let me say this: Any suggestion that President Trump disparaged Ms. Guillen or refused to pay for her funeral expenses is absolutely false.”
He continued:
“He was nothing but kind, gracious, and wanted to make sure that the military and the U.S. government did right by Vanessa Guillen and her family.”
Read more: Maya Guillen Blasts The Atlantic for ‘Exploiting’ Her Murdered Sister; Family Atty Says Reporter ‘Lied’
Dutifully spreading the false attack were Democrats’ pals in the legacy media.
But the smear involving the alleged racist remark and degradation of Vanessa Guillen’s honor by the former president in 2020 was only half of the ploy that Goldberg tried to spring. The second trap was a comment that General (ret.) John Kelly attributed to Trump, in which Kelly alleged Trump yearned to have a personal cadre of military staffers like German dictator Adolf Hitler.
And on Wednesday afternoon, it wasn’t just the media that hoped to make Americans, many of whom are already voting across the country, turn away in disgust from Trump–Vice President Kamala Harris used the opportunity of her first press conference as the Democrat Party presidential nominee to sling the dirt Kelly threw out as wide as possible:
It seems that Harris wasn’t satisfied that almost every legacy media outlet (and CNN and MSNBC, of course) ran with the debunked Jeffrey Goldberg hit piece in The Atlantic which alleged that Donald Trump once told some White House staffers, “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had,” among other allegations.
…
“Yesterday we learned that Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly, a retired four-star general, confirmed that while Donald Trump was president he said he wanted generals like Adolf Hitler had. Donald Trump said that because he does not want a military that is loyal to the U.S. Constitution; he wants a military that is loyal to him. He wants a military who will be loyal to him personally, one that will obey his orders even when he tells them to break the law or abandon their oath to the Constitution of the United States.”
DESPERATE MUCH? Yes, Kamala Harris Really Held a Press Conference Just to Call Donald Trump ‘Hitler’
Donald Trump and his campaign swiftly responded to Harris’ low blow, which she incurred while using the front door of the residence of the vice president of the United States as a stately backdrop. Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement on X:
Kamala Harris is a stone-cold loser who is increasingly desperate because she is flailing, and her campaign is in shambles. That is why she continues to peddle outright lies and falsehoods that are easily disproven. The fact is that Kamala’s dangerous rhetoric is directly to blame for the multiple assassination attempts against President Trump and she continues to stoke the flames of violence all in the name of politics. She is despicable and her grotesque behavior proves she is wholly unfit for office.
Donald Trump Makes a Swift Response to Kamala Harris’ Claim That He ‘Invoked Hitler’
Now, high-ranking members of the Trump administration are denouncing not only Gen. Kelly and his vicious falsehood against former Pres. Trump, but VP Harris for taking part in the charade. Nick Ayers, who served as former Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, shared in a post on X that he had up to this point held off on responding to “intra-staff leaks or rumors or even lies,” but this was the final straw:
I’ve avoided commenting on intra-staff leaks or rumors or even lies as it relates to my time at the White House but General Kelly’s comments regarding President Trump are too egregious to ignore. I was with each of them more than most, and his commentary is *patently false.* pic.twitter.com/T167w9GSv1
— Nick Ayers (@nick_ayers) October 23, 2024
He said:
I’ve avoided commenting on intra-staff leaks or rumors or even lies as it relates to my time at the White House but General Kelly’s comments regarding President Trump are too egregious to ignore. I was with each of them more than most, and his commentary is *patently false.*
It got worse for the Harris-Walz campaign from there, though. U.S. Army Lt. Gen. (ret.) Keith Kellogg, who served as a national security advisor to both Trump and Pence in the WH, calls out Kamala as “a fraud,” then lays into Kelly as being “complicit in this fraud,” and John Bolton is looped in for good measure:
Vice President Harris is a fraud. I was in the White House at a senior level much longer than General Kelly. He is complicit in this fraud and has lied to the American people. His lies, as well as John Bolton’s, are a disservice to Nation at this critical time. So are the VP’s. https://t.co/2b77pMsVVl
— Keith Kellogg (@generalkellogg) October 23, 2024
He said:
Vice President Harris is a fraud. I was in the White House at a senior level much longer than General Kelly. He is complicit in this fraud and has lied to the American people. His lies, as well as John Bolton’s, are a disservice to Nation at this critical time. So are the VP’s.
He would be in a position to know about it. Kellogg helped to thoroughly debunk a similar Atlantic story from 2020, in which Jeffrey Goldberg claimed that someone said Trump degraded and insulted servicemembers with the phrase “suckers and losers”–an attack the Democratic ticket still uses today.
The Trump staffer, writing on X in 2020, said:
“The Atlantic story is completely false. Absolutely lacks merit. I’ve been by the President’s side. He has always shown the highest respect to our active duty troops and veterans with utmost respect paid to those who have given the ultimate sacrifice and those wounded in battle.”
Speaking of the many false attacks about the military throw at former Pres. Trump, he didn’t mince words about Kelly, writing on Truth Social on Wednesday evening:
He said:
Thank you for your support against a total degenerate named John Kelly, who made up a story out of pure Trump Derangement Syndrome Hatred! This guy had two qualities, which don’t work well together. He was tough and dumb. The problem is his toughness morphed into weakness, because he became JELLO with time! The story about the Soldiers was A LIE, as are numerous other stories he told. Even though I shouldn’t be wasting my time with him, I always feel it’s necessary to hit back in pursuit of THE TRUTH. John Kelly is a LOWLIFE, and a bad General, whose advice in the White House I no longer sought, and told him to MOVE ON! His wife once told me, at Camp David, John admires you tremendously, and when he leaves the Military, he will only speak well of you. I said, Thank you!
That’s what these two-faced vipers do. They only say what they have to say to get what they want–power. Despicable.
