Anthony Scaramucci Likens Pro-Trump Republican Lawmakers to Nazi Appeasing Vichy France
Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci likened congressional Republicans to members of the Vichy Republic, a fascist interim governing force who helped Nazi Germany run France after the Axis power invaded and took over the country during World War II.
Scaramucci made the remark Monday on CNN’s New Day while reacting to the vast majority GOP lawmakers who have defended President Donald Trump amid the House Democrats’ led impeachment investigation over the administration’s push to have Ukraine launch a corruption probe against former Vice President Joe Biden in exchange for $400 million in U.S. military aid. The former Trump aide began his commentary by responding to Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) calling the impeachment inquiry “a sham,” as Scaramucci opined, “The original John [F.] Kennedy wrote profiles in courage … These current Republicans are writing profiles in cowardice.”
“Five years from now, people are going to look back and say, ‘OK, what were you actually thinking when you were telling those lies about Ukraine or telling those lies for President Trump? What were you actually thinking? And there’s going to be no answer for that,” he added. “The only answer they can come up with is, ‘Well, I wanted to stay in power. I was afraid of a presidential tweet. I was afraid to be intimidated by the president. I thought it was the right thing to do to look loyal in a situation where there’s great illegality going on.'”
“They’re taking cover with each other,” Scaramucci said. “There’s comfort in a crowd. So if one or two of them break out from the crowd, then you’ll see a cascade. But it’s just ridiculous what’s going on.”
He then excoriated Republicans for standing by a man who “broke the law” and, in doing so, disavowed their “own oath to the Constitution,” while comparing the president’s latest scandal to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster — “a Trumpnobyl meltdown” — and suggesting that Trump is like disgraced football player O.J. Simpson: “They didn’t get O.J. on the original murder but they got him on the sports memorabilia. This is classically what President Trump has done. Okay? He’s been caught now in the Ukraine scandal, and his only defense right now is if he can just get the Republicans to hold the line and accept his illegality.”
“Now you have a group — they’re like Vichy Republicans,” he continued. “Remember the Vichy Republic? When Hitler took over Paris and took over France, there was a Vichy group of French that were helping him administrate the French government.”
CNN host Alisyn Camerota pushed back on her guest’s Nazi simile, saying, “That’s really strong. I mean, that’s really a strong — that’s a strong charge.”
“I’m not comparing anybody to Hitler,” Scaramucci clarified. “I’m just suggesting that they’re falling in line in a way that is absolutely despicable as it relates to the Constitution.”
While Scaramucci defended Trump for some time after his infamously short 11-day stint serving in the White House in 2017, he has spent recent months going all-out against his former boss, even predicting that the president will be removed from office before the 2020 election.
Watch above, via CNN.
