Psychiatrist Bandy X. Lee Praises Hitler in Attempt to Criticize President Trump

November 10, 2020

Psychiatrist Dr. Bandy X. Lee raised eyebrows on Monday when she criticized President Trump by complimenting Adolf Hitler in a series of Twitter posts.

Lee, a psychiatrist at the Yale School of Medicine’s Law and Psychiatry Division, has previously diagnosed Trump with various psychological ailments from afar but outdid herself with a bizarre attempt at a history lesson in an effort to compare the incumbent Republican to the ruthless Nazi dictator.

"Donald Trump is not Adolf Hitler," Lee began. "At least Hitler improved the daily life of his followers, had discipline, and required more of himself to gain the respect of his followers. Even with the same pathology, there are varying degrees of competence."

Lee, who has appeared on CNN and MSNBC, later deleted the tweet amid backlash but stopped short of offering an apology.

"Okay, I have taken it down, since it has upset so many people and was not provoking thought but the opposite," she wrote. "Of note, my statement was about how little Donald Trump believes he needs to do to retain his followership, NOT to minimize Adolf Hitler’s atrocities.

"If we cannot look at parallels in history and learn from them, we are truly poised to repeat it," Lee went on. "I say so in heartbreak for the 11+ million lives lost, not in their minimization (currently, we are looking at 7 billion at risk, without exaggeration if we soberly thought of it)."

She later clarified, "The main point, in case unclear: someone who has dangerous mental pathology and is more competent, even if not fully competent, CAN commit greater evil. I would have said from this that Hitler is WORSE, not better, as some seem to have oddly concluded."

Last year, Lee participated in a CNN panel that made headlines when her fellow psychiatrist, Dr. Allen Frances, claimed that Trump was responsible for more deaths than Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse Tung, without receiving any pushback from "Reliable Sources" host Brian Stelter.

Stelter later blamed technical difficulties for not hearing Frances' remarks in full after the segment was criticized online.

Source: Joseph A. Wulfsohn, “Psychiatrist featured on CNN, MSNBC praises Hitler in tweet attacking Trump,” Fox News, Nov. 2, 2020. URL: https://www.foxnews.com/media/dr-bandy-x-lee-slams-trump-praises-hitler?fbclid=IwAR0zdy6uivqC4tzGsAR1SJhpIKKF64B95rYOh9BoNo1B_OrIQorUbJpBOdY