In a Monday interview with ABC News, floundering Democratic presidential candidate Robert “Beto” O’Rourke drew a bizarre comparison between President Trump’s recent campaign event in North Carolina and Nazi Party rallies.
Asked by a reporter to say whether Trump is a racist, the former Texas congressman replied, “Yes, President Trump is a racist.” He continued, “What we saw in North Carolina last week was almost an impromptu Nuremberg rally, inciting hatred, and ultimately I think implicit in that is violence against people based on the color of their skin, based on their religion, based on their differences from the majority of Americans.”
“And it is in keeping with this president,” O’Rourke added, “who describes Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals, who describes asylum seekers as animals or an infestation, who says that Klansmen are very fine people. It’s very clear the path that he is taking us on.”
"Yes, President Trump is a racist," 2020 candidate Beto O'Rourke tells ABC News' @BrianaKStewart on @ABCNewsLive. "What we saw in North Carolina last week was almost an impromptu Nuremberg rally … it's very clear the path that he is taking us on" https://t.co/sXxUb9FK8j pic.twitter.com/3WtG9ITGK8
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) July 22, 2019
Trump’s North Carolina rally drew criticism after part of the crowd reacted to his remarks on Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), one of his most strident progressive opponents in Congress, by chanting, “Send her back!” The president later said he was “not happy” with the chant.
O’Rourke’s absurd invocation of Nuremberg rallies implicitly compares President Trump to Adolf Hitler, who spoke before massive crowds at the Nazi Party gatherings. The candidate currently sits at 2.8 percent in Real Clear Politics’s Democratic primary polling average, more than 25 points behind former vice president Joe Biden.
