Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty (R) and CNN’s John Berman in an interview on Wednesday sparred over past comments made by former President Trump in which the Republican presidential nominee reportedly praised Adolf Hitler.
The remarks, relayed by Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly in an interview with The New York Times, have lit up a political firestorm with less than two weeks to go before Election Day. Vice President Harris on Wednesday held a press event to criticize Trump over the remarks, calling him increasingly unhinged.
Hagerty in the interview said he took the comments with a “grain of salt” given the relationship between Trump and Kelly.
“I worked both with General Kelly and President Trump in the last administration and it was not a good fit. General Kelly’s been on record many times criticizing President Trump. Obviously, he doesn’t like President Trump,” Hagerty said when Berman pressed the senator on the audio recordings of Kelly talking about the remarks.
“I would take that with a grain of salt, just as I would some of the other things that have been reported that have been debunked consistently along these lines,” Hagerty added.
Hagerty also said he wouldn’t say that “Hitler did any good things.”
“But I do say this as well, trying to compare President Trump to Hitler is dangerous,” Hagerty said as Berman interjected with a reference to a text message from Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, in 2016, when he apparently privately called the Republican nominee “America’s Hitler.”
“Bring that up with JD Vance, who apparently said that in a text message, which he doesn’t deny some years ago,” Berman said.
Vance has since recanted the critical statements and embraced Trump wholeheartedly, saying, “I was wrong about Donald Trump.”
During the interview, Berman pressed Hagerty on the audio recording and asked the senator if he has “any idea what Trump could be praising about Adolf Hitler.”
Hagerty did not agree that Trump praised Hitler and instead pivoted to the “respect” that he saw from the former president to the U.S. military when he visited the senator in Japan.
“Well, I’m not agreeing that Trump is praising Adolf Hitler because all you have are the comments from General Kelly again who did [not] mix with President Trump, who did not get along with President Trump and has been consistently on the record against President Trump,” Hagerty said.
“President Trump came to visit me three times. We always met with our military there, and I never saw anything but the utmost respect, both President Trump’s respect for our military and their love and respect for him. That’s what I know,” Hagerty added, referencing the Japan visits.
When Berman asked Hagerty if Kelly ever lied to the senator about anything, Hagerty said, “I never am aware of John Kelly lying to me about anything, no.”
Berman pressed the senator again, asking why Hagerty would doubt what Kelly is on the record saying in the recording if he had never lied to him before.
“Because it’s wholly inconsistent with my experience with President Trump. I also have reason to doubt it because there have been articles published about ‘losers’ and the things that were supposedly said in Normandy. I called the ambassador right away,” Hagerty said, referring to past comments made by Trump in which he reportedly called slain American soldiers buried at a French cemetery “losers” and “suckers.” Trump previously denied those allegations.
“Again, these are old stories that are being drug up, of course, within two weeks of the election,” Hagerty added, saying that these comments are being brought up now to “divert and deflect.”