Charlie Kirk Dismantles College History Professor's Comparison of Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler

[00:00] A college teacher challenged Charlie

[00:01] Kirk by comparing Donald Trump to Adolf

[00:03] Hitler. A remark that quickly sparked a

[00:05] heated debate.

[00:07] >> Um I'm actually an instructor in

[00:09] history. I teach at the college level.

[00:10] And um I have a lot of um my coverage,

[00:13] my main area is um World War I and World

[00:17] War II. And I really hate it when I'm

[00:20] teaching those classes and then we have

[00:21] a political discussion and students

[00:23] immediately go to the fascistic kind of

[00:25] like Hitler comparison. But that's my

[00:27] question that I have for you. At what

[00:29] point have you see the development of

[00:30] what's happening currently right now to

[00:32] Trump's rise to power um his progression

[00:34] to getting his second term compared to

[00:37] Vimar Germany during the in- war period

[00:38] because there's a lot of correlations

[00:40] there and this isn't propaganda I can

[00:42] give you list after list after list from

[00:43] an objective point of view because I'm

[00:45] sure you consider yourself to be an

[00:46] historian like you're I've seen you in

[00:49] videos before doing very well

[00:50] interacting with the literature and if

[00:52] that's the case in history if you're

[00:53] asking a question testing a theory or

[00:54] filling in a gap asking that question

[00:56] shouldn't be as controversial as it

[00:58] should especially if you're looking from

[00:59] objective means.

[01:00] >> Okay. Um, fair question. Do you also,

[01:03] and I will answer the question, but do

[01:05] you also correlate President Trump's

[01:07] rise to second power to Winston

[01:08] Churchill's?

[01:11] >> No, I wouldn't. But they have way more

[01:13] in common than the Weimar Germany one.

[01:15] And you're a historian, professor. You

[01:16] know that, right?

[01:17] >> Well, think about it. Donald Trump was

[01:18] put in exile. So is Churchill after the

[01:20] Darnell. You know about the Darnell's

[01:21] because you're a professor, right?

[01:23] >> You do.

[01:23] >> Mhm.

[01:24] >> Okay. Can you tell me about the

[01:25] Darnell's?

[01:26] >> I would rather focus primarily on World

[01:27] War I professor and you don't know about

[01:29] the Darnell's. Okay. Anyway, no, no, but

[01:31] this is important because everyone says

[01:33] this is what you're paying for

[01:34] everybody. Um

[01:40] >> because it's it's and it's interesting.

[01:42] They say, well, the similarities between

[01:44] Weimar Germany and and Trump, okay, but

[01:48] Churchill and Trump had a lot of

[01:49] similarities in their rise to power. So

[01:51] did Thatcher and Trump. The point being

[01:53] is there's a lot of European examples

[01:55] you can point to. However, I will

[01:57] concretely answer the question. They

[01:58] have huge things that they disagree on

[02:00] and that there were big differences. Was

[02:02] Hitler pro- free speech or anti-free

[02:04] speech?

[02:06] >> Um, he wasn't necessarily pro- free

[02:08] speech, especially when it got towards

[02:10] the end of the Vimar Republic.

[02:11] >> Yeah. I mean, he would imprison

[02:12] journalists and, you know, put his

[02:13] political opponents in jail. And so, I

[02:17] guess the question is, has Donald Trump

[02:19] been pro- free speech or anti-ree?

[02:21] >> Well, if I can give you some comparisons

[02:23] that I would necessarily see. I mean, if

[02:25] you look at uh you have a populist

[02:28] movement, right? You have uh someone who

[02:30] is very has a cult of personality, a

[02:32] fantastic, no, a very effective

[02:33] rhetoric. If you look at the

[02:35] assassination attempts that were on

[02:36] Hitler and on Trump, if you look at even

[02:38] the iconography that you have within the

[02:40] MAGA hats, you have a white lettering on

[02:42] a red background. If you even go even

[02:45] further,

[02:45] >> I got another one. You forgot.

[02:47] >> Uh did did you know that Hitler had a

[02:49] dog?

[02:50] >> Okay. No, no. So, so, so the very nature

[02:52] of history is seen a level of comparison

[02:54] of analysis. Once again, I'm not

[02:56] >> Oh my goodness. Hitler was also a

[02:57] vegetarian. So, vegetarians are also

[02:59] likely to kill their whole population.

[03:01] >> If I could give you another example. Um,

[03:02] and because after my question, I would

[03:04] like to ask

[03:04] >> this is such a sloppy analysis and you

[03:06] know it.

[03:06] >> No, because I'm trying to step piece at

[03:08] a time to ask you because the question

[03:10] isn't a def definitive. You're trying to

[03:12] build an argument which is the very

[03:13] nature of it. and to sit down and

[03:15] observe and ask these questions because

[03:16] it tends to get to the right that

[03:18] there's this accusation that certain

[03:20] comparisons aren't allowed on the left.

[03:21] And so I'm asking you like in a high

[03:23] level of integrity, do you see these

[03:24] comparisons? Not to call Hit uh Trump

[03:27] Hitler. That's not what I'm trying to

[03:28] do. What I'm trying to ask is if you're

[03:30] sitting down paying attention, at what

[03:32] point would you say maybe you're

[03:33] starting to exceed the level of someone

[03:35] who's trying to act as a liberator to

[03:37] getting to the point of the death spot?

[03:38] >> Well, well, first of all, I think the

[03:40] entire premise is wrong. You cannot draw

[03:42] a linear connection with every figure of

[03:44] history to the moment of time. That

[03:46] first of all, that's just an incredibly

[03:48] sloppy way of looking at things because

[03:49] then everything becomes Nazi Germany and

[03:51] everything is Hitlerian. For example,

[03:54] people are like, "Oh, Joe Biden is

[03:55] acting like Hitler." Which, by the way,

[03:56] he acted far more as an autocrat than

[03:58] Donald Trump ever would. Lockings of

[04:00] political opponents in jail. One second.

[04:02] Instead, you have to look at every

[04:03] moment in time, its own context, in its

[04:05] own perspective. And I would say there

[04:08] are there's a lot more depth and

[04:10] richness of history than just what

[04:12] happened during the horrors of World War

[04:14] II. As I mentioned, Churchill's rise to

[04:16] power, Thatcher's rise to power, the

[04:18] Elizabeth the Elizabethan period. I

[04:19] think that Donald Trump is much more

[04:21] like Justinian's reign or Marcus

[04:23] Aurelius than anything that you could

[04:25] connect to Donald Trump. It would

[04:27] connect to Adolf Hitler. But at what

[04:29] point, that's a hypothetical. And I

[04:30] refuse to answer hypotheticals, but I

[04:32] would have to throw it back at you.

[04:33] >> It's not a hypothetical. It's a factual

[04:35] comparison. No, you asked a

[04:35] hypothetical. You asked me

[04:37] hypothetically at what point would I

[04:38] draw a line? That is a hypothetical by

[04:40] definition. Professor,

[04:41] >> what a progression towards a conclusion

[04:43] of the the evidence that's presented.

[04:45] >> I I reject answering hypothetical.

[04:47] >> I'm trying to bring up the factual

[04:48] information in order to get to

[04:50] >> said allow me to answer have you answer

[04:52] a very specific question. Okay. Would

[04:54] you agree that Would you agree that

[04:57] there