President Biden on Tuesday said that former President Trump is embracing Russian President Vladimir Putin by quoting him, while also bashing the GOP pushback over his remarks that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
“This weekend Trump was embracing his old pal Putin. Trump even quoted him this weekend. That’s no surprise. After all there’s a lot of agreement between Moscow and Mar-a-Lago,” Biden said at a campaign reception in Bethesda, Md.
He was alluding to Trump’s controversial rally in New Hampshire on Saturday, during which the former president quoted Putin and made comments that have drawn comparisons to Nazi rhetoric before and during World War II.
“The language he uses reminds us of the language coming out of Germany in the ’30s,” Biden said to a room of about 120 donors. “He has called those who oppose him ‘vermin,’ and again this weekend, he talked about the blood of our country being poisoned. Even conservative Republicans have spoken out.”
Trump on Saturday quoted Putin and said Biden’s “politically motivated persecution” into him “shows the rottenness of the American political system.” He also claimed immigrants were “pouring into” the United States and “poisoning the blood of our country.”
“All over the world they’re coming into our country. From Africa, from Asia, all over the world,” the Republican primary front-runner said.
Vice President Harris has also bashed the comments, arguing it is similar to rhetoric used by Adolf Hitler to describe Jews poisoning the blood of Germans.
Additionally, Republicans have said that Trump’s inflammatory comments crossed the line. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) earlier Tuesday said, “It strikes me that didn’t bother him when he appointed Elaine Chao the secretary of Transportation,” referring to his wife who is a Taiwanese American.
Other Republicans have defended Trump.
Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R), one of Trump’s staunchest Senate allies and one of Biden’s rivals, said he was “mad” that Trump “wasn’t tougher than that.”
Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) criticized the media’s coverage of Trump’s remarks, saying they had been misconstrued.