Key Point: “While the Biden campaign and historians have repeatedly highlighted the similarities between Trump’s language and Nazi propaganda, many of his GOP allies have defended him or declined to comment on the remarks.” 

Forbes: Republicans Downplay Trump’s Hitler Rhetoric

By Sara Dorn

• Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) insisted former President Donald Trump wasn’t referring to “immigrants” when he said twice Saturday that “illegal immigration is poisoning the blood” of our country, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called it a “tactical mistake,” and multiple Senate Republicans declined to comment—despite widespread fury that the language echoes that of Adolf Hitler.

• Trump made the comments at a rally in New Hampshire then repeated them in writing on Truth Social later in the day—marking at least the fourth time in recent weeks that Trump’s rhetoric has drawn comparisons to Hitler, who mentions “blood poisoning” several times in “Mein Kampf”, where he claimed “great cultures of the past perished only because the originally created race died out from blood poisoning. “

• While the Biden campaign and historians have repeatedly highlighted the similarities between Trump’s language and Nazi propaganda, many of his GOP allies have defended him or declined to comment on the remarks.

• Malliotakis, the only Republican in Congress who represents a New York City district, told CNN Monday Trump “didn’t say the words immigrants” adding, “I think he was talking about the Democratic policies,” while she defended Trump against people who “are trying to make it seem like President Trump is anti-immigrant . . . the reality is he was married to immigrants, he’s hired immigrants,” she said.

• DeSantis also downplayed the remarks in Iowa Monday and said Trump made a “tactical mistake” by giving “the opposition an ability to try to make [Trump’s immigration policy proposals] about something else,” and also told Fox News, “I don’t know what this means with the blood stuff, I know people are trying to draw historical allusions, I don’t know if that’s what he meant.”
• At least two GOP senators, John Kennedy (La.) and Todd Young (Ind.), declined to comment when asked about the remarks by Politico, which noted no GOP senators called on Trump to walk back the comments.

• Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), who has sharply criticized college students who have espoused pro-Palestinian language widely viewed as antisemitic and denounced university leaders who have defended them, has not publicly commented on Trump’s remarks and instead met with him at Mar-a-Lago on Monday.

• Historians and critics of Trump’s “blood” comments have noted they closely mirror phrases used several times in Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.”

• Trump also quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin and praised dictators, including Hungarian President Viktor Orban and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, in his speech Saturday.