MSNBC's Joe Scarborough laughed out loud at the recollection of Donald Trump getting a forceful fact-check of his admiration for Adolf Hitler.
New York Times reporter Peter Baker appeared Tuesday on "Morning Joe" to discuss Army 1st Lt. Jimmy McCain, the son of the late Sen. John McCain, denouncing the Republican nominee's campaign visit to Arlington National Cemetery and endorsing Kamala Harris for president, and he recalled an infamous example of Trump's misunderstanding of the military.
"There's a disconnect between former president Trump and the culture of military service, right?" Baker said. "He told John Kelly, his second chief of staff, when they visited John Kelly's son's grave that he didn't understand what was in it for soldiers who went into combat. He said to Kelly, according to Kelly, anyway, that those who went to war were suckers and losers. Of course, he's denied that, but president Trump did not go to war. He had bone spurs that were diagnosed in his feet by a podiatrist who was doing a favor to his father to get out of service in Vietnam. So for a lot of military people, there's something about former president Trump that doesn't understand the values and virtues that military people feel."
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"Remember," Baker added, "he told Gen. Kelly at one point while he was president, he says, 'You know, you f'ing generals, I don't understand – why aren't you like the German generals,' and Kelly said, 'What are you talking about? The German generals in World War II, you mean Hitler's generals?' 'Yeah, they were very loyal,' president Trump said at this point, and Kelly had to remind him, 'Well, they tried to kill Hitler several times.'"
Scarborough burst into laughter at Trump's apparent ignorance as co-host Mika Brzezinski sighed loudly
"His idea of the military is that they are political and answer to him, that they are to be loyal servants to him," Baker continued, as Scarborough continued laughing in amazement. "That is what Mark Milley, the joint chiefs chairman, he appointed himself, resisted in the final months of the administration. He wrote a secret resignation letter, he was so upset at the way he saw Trump politicizing the military, he put the letter in a drawer and said, 'I'm going to fight to keep Trump from abusing the power of the military for political purposes in those last days in office.' Of course, Mike Flynn shows up in the White House with a plan that would essentially declare martial law over the country in order to reinstate or to keep president Trump in power."
"So his relationship with the military is a fascinating and important one," Baker added, "and I think it's popular with a lot of people in the military, if you do these rallies, you'll see a lot of veterans there. He absolutely does speak to them in a lot of ways, but a lot of people who have the feeling and the culture of the place, people like Jimmy McCain, John McCain before he passed, John Kelly, really resent Trump's attitude toward the military."
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