The Republican vice presidential candidate late. JD Vance (OH) on Thursday pushed back against John Kelly’s remarks describing former President Donald Trump as “an authoritarian” and someone who fits the “general definition of a fascist.”

Vance wrote in a Facebook group in 2016 that he feared Trump could be “America’s Hitler.” But this week he defended his vice presidential candidate, saying Kelly’s allegations are the words of a “disgruntled former employee.”

“Here’s what John Kelly said. John Kelly was fired by Donald Trump and he’s pissed about it and he’s not going to stop talking about it,” Vance said during a rally in Michigan when asked about Kelly’s latest comments. Every time John Kelly said something happened, you have three or four people who were allegedly in the room when it happened and said he made it up.”

“So who do we believe?” asked the senator from Ohio. “Do we believe multiple eyewitnesses or do we believe a disgruntled former employee? I believe multiple eyewitnesses. I believe everything John Kelly said is not true.”

Many other employees have is confirmed Kelly’s comments and shared her diagnosis.

Two other generals who served in his administration, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley and former Secretary of Defense Mark Esperhas also described Trump as authoritarian and suggested he is a fascist.

At his meeting, Vance also accused Vice President Kamala Harris and her campaign of instructing Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff and homeland security secretary, on what to say.

“John Kelly didn’t come of his own accord. I guarantee he spoke to someone in the Kamala Harris campaign beforehand,” Vance said. “And we have to ask ourselves, why is the media and, most importantly, why is Kamala Harris talking about a disgruntled former employee instead of the fact that under her leadership, grocery prices increased 25 percent in the state of Michigan?”

Vance’s insistence that Trump’s accusers are wrong comes in the wake of a recently published interview Kelly did with New York Times.

“Certainly the former president is in the far-right realm, he’s really authoritarian, admires people who are dictators — he’s said that. So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure,” Kelly said.

In a separate interview with Atlantic managing editor Jeffrey Goldberg, Kelly offered more details from his time working for the former president.

“I need the kind of generals that Hitler had,” Trump said, according to Kelly. “People who were completely loyal to him, who follow orders.”

Kelly also said that Trump used the terms “suckers” and “losers” to describe soldiers who gave their lives to defend the country on several occasions.

“Vietnam would have been a waste of time for me. Only scumbags went to Vietnam,” he said during his presidency, according to Kelly, who served as Trump’s chief of staff from 2017 to 2019.

Meanwhile, in response to Vance’s allegations, the Harris campaign said in a statement that the senator knows “the truth about Trump’s dangerous disregard for the rule of law and his desire to wield unchecked power against his fellow Americans.”

“Vance’s public outburst will not change the fact that those who know Trump best are warning all Americans that he is a threat to our democracy — and that he would be even more dangerous in a second term,” said Alex Floyd, a spokesman for the Democratic National the committee. said in a statement, according to Politico.

On Friday morning, 13 former Trump staffers posted one letter support Kelly and agree with his assessment. “Everyone should heed General Kelly’s warning. We have witnessed, up close and personal, how Donald Trump operates and what he is capable of,” the former officials wrote.

“The American people deserve a leader who will not threaten to turn armed troops against them, will not put his pursuit of power above their needs, and will not idealize the likes of Adolf Hitler,” they continued. “Donald Trump demonstrates every day that he is unfit to be commander-in-chief of this great nation.”