'More clutter': Ex-Trump aide downplays significance of reported Hitler remark

A former aide to Donald Trump downplayed the significance of an explosive new report in The Atlantic that the former president said he needed the "kind of generals that [Adolf] Hitler had."

Trump's one-time chief of staff retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, who also served as Trump's Homeland Security secretary and a critic of the former president since leaving the administration, told The Atlantic that "when Trump raised the subject of 'German generals,' Kelly responded by asking, '‘Do you mean Bismarck’s generals?’' He went on: 'I mean, I knew he didn’t know who Bismarck was, or about the Franco-Prussian War. I said, ‘Do you mean the Kaiser’s generals? Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals? And he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.’ I explained to him that [Erwin] Rommel had to commit suicide after taking part in a plot against Hitler.' Kelly told me Trump was not acquainted with Rommel."

Marc Lotter joined CNN's "Outfront" with anchor Erin Burnett on Tuesday evening and said he doesn't think the report will have much impact on undecided and independent voters.

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"I don't really," he said. "Obviously John Kelly has said a lot of things about Donald Trump over the years. A lot of those have been disproven or pushed back on by a number of different people who were in the room. A lot of the things that are coming out in this report tonight are being pushed back on from the chief of staff at the White House, the Pentagon's chief of staff and as you pointed out earlier the victim's ... sister who pushed back against this reporting."

Lotter classified the report as "more clutter" two weeks before the election.

"If you're still undecided in this election right now, and that's 3, 4, 5 percent, I think it's because you wanted Kamala Harris to give you a reason to vote for her. She can't do it," said Lotter, pointing to inflation and border security.

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