Nessel Compares 
Trump to Hitler

DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER

Jews in the D

A

t Michigan’
s virtual 
Democratic Nominating 
Convention Aug. 29, the 
state’
s Attorney General, Dana 
Nessel, compared President 
Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler.
“Hitler, by all accounts, could 
read and write … 
and he also was brave 
enough to serve in 
his nation’
s military,
” 
Nessel joked in her 
speech, as reported by 
Gongwer Michigan.
The Michigan 
Democratic Party did 
not make a transcript 
of Nessel’
s remarks available to 
press and did not return the JN’
s 
request for comment. Gongwer 
reporter Jordyn Hermani tweet-
ed additional context.
“Her lead-up to the statement 
was that neither had received 
the popular vote and yet [both] 
still took office, denigrate immi-
grants, see to destroy unions, 
degrade those who disagree with 
them, etc., and then said she 
wasn’
t talking about Trump but 
Hitler,
” she tweeted.
Nessel was elected in 2018 
and is the state’
s first Jewish AG. 
Her office defended her com-
ments in a statement to the JN 
from Communications Director 
Kelly Rossman-McKinney.
“
AG Nessel is passionate 
about this election and deeply 
concerned about the direction 
of our country under the cur-
rent president,
” the statement 
read. “The president’
s actions ... 
[were] reminiscent of a certain 
historical figure, and she chose 
to point that out after doing 
an extensive, careful and accu-
rate historical comparison that 

resulted in a very long list of 
similarities.
”
Michigan Republican Party 
Chair Laura Cox criticized 
Nessel’
s comments in a state-
ment to the JN. 
“Not only is comparing 
President Trump to a 
man who murdered 10 
million innocent people 
totally insane, but to 
go as far as glorifying 
Hitler by praising his 
intelligence and calling 
him brave, makes me 
sick to my stomach,
” 
Cox said. 
Neil Strauss, the Republican 
Jewish Coalition’
s communica-
tions director, also had harsh 
words.
“Dana Nessel is trafficking in 
Holocaust denial, plain and sim-
ple,
” Strauss wrote in an email to 
the JN. “She isn’
t edgy, funny or 
profound. What she is, is dead 
wrong when it comes to this 
comparison.
”
Trump has attacked Nessel on 
Twitter in the past, calling her 
“wacky” and “do-nothing” after 
Nessel criticized Ford Motor 
Company for not mandating 
that Trump wear a mask during 
a recent plant visit.
Noah Arbit, chair of the 
Michigan Democratic Jewish 
Caucus, defended Nessel. 
“
As a proud Jewish woman, 
AG Nessel has spoken movingly 
about the historical reverber-
ations of many of the Trump 
administration’
s most heinous 
acts, including obscene dema-
goguery and the persecution of 
minority groups and political 
opponents, which characterized 
Nazi Germany,
” Arbit said. 

42 | SEPTEMBER 17 • 2020 

Dana Nessel

MICHIGAN.GOV

