() – Donald Trump told his supporters in Georgia on Monday that he is “the opposite of a Nazi,” responding to comparisons of his rally this Sunday at Madison Square Garden with a 1939 pro-Nazi meeting at the same place.
The former president also tried to turn criticism of his rally into a flashpoint for all Trump supporters by falsely claiming that Vice President Kamala Harris is calling those who voted for him Nazis.
“The new line from Kamala and her campaign is that anyone who doesn’t vote for her is a Nazi,” Trump told supporters at a rally in Georgia, a line his Democratic rival didn’t actually say.
Harris reacted last week after The Atlantic reported that Trump, while in the White House, had expressed admiration for the loyalty of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi generals. That report was corroborated by retired Marine General John Kelly, White House chief of staff from 2017 to 2019, who separately told The New York Times that Trump fit the definition of a fascist.
Harris responded to those reports in a town hall, saying she believes Trump is a fascist and that “the people who know him best on this issue should be trusted.” His campaign also used The Atlantic report and Kelly’s statements in advertisements in recent days.
Trump appeared to respond to those comments Monday night in Georgia, when he said his father had urged him to never describe people as Nazis or Hitler.
“He used to always say, ‘Never use the word Nazi. Never use that word.’ And he said: ‘Never use the word Hitler. Don’t use that word,’” Trump said.
Referring to Democrats, Trump added: “They use that word – actually, it’s both words. It’s Hitler.’ And then they say, ‘He’s a Nazi.'”
“I’m not a Nazi,” Trump said. “I am the opposite of a Nazi.”
Trump also responded to Harris calling him a fascist, saying, “She’s a fascist, okay? “She is a fascist.”
Trump’s description of Harris comes despite the fact that the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, and the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, had days before described the use of the word from the vice president and stated that it could lead to violence.
The attacks on Harris come amid the political fallout from Trump’s rally this Sunday at the iconic Madison Square Garden, where a comedian who opened for the former president called Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage,” a comment that It drew widespread condemnation and provoked a backlash among a rapidly growing Latino group in Pennsylvania.
Harris told reporters Monday that the incendiary comments at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally were “not new” for a former president who regularly uses violent rhetoric directed at undocumented immigrants.
“It’s just more of the same, and perhaps more vivid, than usual,” Harris said. “Donald Trump spends all his time trying to get Americans to point fingers at each other. “It fuels the fuel of hate and division and that is why people are tired of it.”
Harris has not called Trump or his supporters a Nazi. However, his running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, said Sunday that there was “a direct parallel” between Trump’s wild rally at Madison Square Garden and the famous 1939 gathering of Nazi supporters at the iconic stadium. from New York.
“And don’t think for a second that he doesn’t know exactly what they’re doing there,” Walz said.
Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, rejected that comparison on Monday.
“They decided to compare us to literal Nazis for gathering at Madison Square Garden and celebrating America. These are the same people, of course, who call us racists for wanting to secure the southern border. They are the same ones who have no plans, ideas, or solutions. All they have is hatred for their fellow citizens,” Vance said at a campaign stop in Wisconsin.
Later, at another event, Vance argued that the values of the American soldiers who landed on the beaches of Normandy to fight Nazi Germany in World War II were far from the policies Harris supports.
“If you believe those brave men were fighting for an open border and sex-change surgeries for illegal immigrants,” Vance said, “the appropriate term for you is ‘id***a.’”
‘s Kit Maher, Aaron Pellish, Nikki Carvajal, Michael Williams and Kate Sullivan contributed to this report.
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