Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Sally Patterson: US Correspondent on John Kelly saying he believes Donald Trump fits the definition of a fascist

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Sally Patterson: US Correspondent on John Kelly saying he believes Donald Trump fits the definition of a fascist · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: Next time. We'll get to that in a second. Right now, though,
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  Speaker 1: we're going to our correspondent out of the United States,
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  Speaker 1: Sally Patterson, is with us. Sally, the comments from Trump's
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  Speaker 1: former chief of staff.
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  Speaker 2: That's right, Ryan. So we've heard these pretty explosive comments
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  Speaker 2: from John F. Kelly coming out. Now. He was Donald
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  Speaker 2: Trump's longest serving chief of staff. He's a former Marine
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  Speaker 2: general who was first US Homeland Secretary Security Secretary under Trump,
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  Speaker 2: and then he moved into the White House in twenty seventeen.
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  Speaker 2: But since then he's become ever more critical of his
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  Speaker 2: former boss. And after Trump made some comments that you
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  Speaker 2: may remember about using the military against what he called
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  Speaker 2: the enemy within, Kelly says he felt like he had
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  Speaker 2: to speak out now. In this new interview with The
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  Speaker 2: New York Times, Kelly says, in his opinion, the former
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  Speaker 2: president meets a definition of a fascist. He also claims
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  Speaker 2: the presidential candidate, including Hitler, and would govern like one
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  Speaker 2: if allowed. Plus, he says he has no understanding of
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  Speaker 2: the Constitution. Now, this isn't the first time we've heard
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  Speaker 2: comments like this coming out from Kelly. Trump spokesperson called
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  Speaker 2: the accounts of his time at the White House debunked stories.
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  Speaker 2: But there's less than two weeks to go now until
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  Speaker 2: election day here in the US, so every new comment
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  Speaker 2: coming out each day could help swave voters one way
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  Speaker 2: or the other.
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  Speaker 1: What is this true? Do we know that this actually
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  Speaker 1: happened and was said.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we've got Kelly's accounts of the situation. He gave
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  Speaker 2: quite a lengthy interview with The New York Times about it.
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  Speaker 2: We've even heard some recordings of that. We've really only
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  Speaker 2: got his accounts and the accounts of other senior White
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  Speaker 2: House officials. Donald Trump has of course consistently denied that
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  Speaker 2: he would say things to this nature, but we have
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  Speaker 2: heard him say quite outrageous comments in the past. He says,
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  Speaker 2: for example, that he admires Hitler because of his economic
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  Speaker 2: policies during that period of financial difficulty for Germany. And
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  Speaker 2: he also says he likes the way that he commanded
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  Speaker 2: his soldiers and his army chiefs. So we're not sure
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  Speaker 2: exactly which bits of these are verbatim, but with certainly
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  Speaker 2: some shocking accusations coming out.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you very much for your time. Great to have
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  Speaker 1: you on the program. As always, Sally Pederson, our US
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  Speaker 1: correspondent for more.
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  Speaker 2: From Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to news
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  Speaker 2: talks it'd be from five am weekdays, or follow the
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  Speaker 2: podcast on iHeartRadio