Former President Donald Trump on Oct. 26, 2024. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

By Jacob Kornbluh October 27, 2024

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign released a video Friday featuring a 94-year-old Holocaust survivor criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris for calling Trump a “fascist.”

The Democratic presidential nominee’s remarks on Wednesday came in response to newly confirmed statements from former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly that Trump privately remarked that “Hitler did some good things” and expressed admiration for “German generals.” Kelly told The New York Times that he believes Trump fits the general definition of a fascist.

“I know more about Hitler than Kamala will ever know in a thousand lifetimes,” said Jerry Wartski in the 90-second clip, as he revealed the tattooed number on his arm from his time as a prisoner at the Auschwitz concentration camp. “For her to accuse President Trump of being like Hitler is the worst thing I’ve ever heard in my 75 years of living in the United States.”

Harris intensified her attacks on Trump in recent days, warning that his re-election would endanger American democracy, as polls show a tight presidential race.  The Harris campaign also highlighted Kelly’s remarks in digital ads.

Trump denied ever making positive statements about Hitler, dismissing the allegations as political attacks from his opponents.

“I know President Trump and he would never say this, and Kamala Harris knows it,” Wartski, 94, said in the campaign video. “She owes my parents and everybody else who was murdered by Hitler an apology for repeating this lie.” Wartski reportedly met Trump during his 20-minute visit to the grave of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in Queens, NY, to mark the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack.

The Hitler remarks could dominate the news cycle as Trump is expected to take the stage at a mass campaign rally on Sunday evening at the iconic Madison Square Garden in midtown Manhattan. Democrats have said the event is reminiscent of the infamous 1939 pro-Nazi rally at the same venue. “Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden will not be the first time someone there has spread dangerous rhetoric about the ‘enemy within’ or immigrants who ‘poison the blood,’” the Jewish Democratic Council of America posted on X.

Jewish featured speakers at the rally include Steve Witkoff, Trump’s golf buddy; Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and co-chair of Trump’s transition team; Sid Rosenberg, a conservative radio host who called Doug Emhoff, the second gentleman, a “crappy Jew”;  and former senior adviser Stephen Miller. Tucker Carlson, an informal adviser to the Trump campaign and former Fox News host, who has come under fire for hosting Holocaust revisionist Darryl Cooper, and Elon Musk will also address the crowd, among other speakers and performers.

NYC Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat facing federal bribery and fraud charges, defended Trump during a press conference about security measures at the rally. “My answer is no,” Adams said when asked if he thinks Trump is a fascist. “I know what Hitler has done and I know what a fascist regime looks like.”

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