Trump Golf Club Hosted Pro-Hitler Jan. 6 Rioter — Where He Was Even Given An Award
Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto via AP
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey hosted a pro-Hitler participant in the January 6 Capitol riot twice this summer, according to a new report from NPR.
Timothy Hale-Cusanelli was present at Bedminster twice over the summer, including for a June fundraiser for Capitol riot defendants for which Trump recorded a video. In the recording, Trump praised “all of the people” present as “amazing patriots.”
In a criminal indictment of Hale-Cusanelli for his role in the riot, it is alleged that he told coworkers that “Hitler should have finished the job” and “babies born with any deformities or disabilities should be shot in the forehead.” He has also sported a moustache resembling Adolf Hitler’s and complained about a “Hasidic Jewish invasion” of New Jersey.
At another event in August, Hale-Cusanelli received an award alongside former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Ironically, Trump appeared at an event about combatting anti-Semitism at Bedminster the day after Hale-Cusanelli was honored on the property, per NPR.
Trump has repeatedly and vigorously come to the defense of those prosecuted for their actions on January 6, promising to pardon them and even referring to those who are imprisoned as “hostages.”
“They’ve been treated terribly and very unfairly, and you know that, and everybody knows that,” said Trump at a rally in March. “And we’re going to be working on that soon. The first day we get into office, we’re going to save our country, and we’re going to work with the people to treat those unbelievable patriots. And they were unbelievable patriots.”
At Tuesday night’s debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump even brought up Ashli Babbitt, the veteran who was shot by a Capitol police officer on the day of the riot.
“Ashli Babbitt was shot by an out-of-control police officer that should have never, ever shot her. It’s a disgrace. But we didn’t do — this group of people that have been treated so badly,” said Trump on Tuesday.
