Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke compared the Trump administration to Nazi Germany in a recent interview.
O’Rourke’s comments came shortly after he was pressed in a live interview with Washington Post reporter Robert Costa on how, if elected president, he’d be able to bring Republicans to his side on different issues after using charged language about them during his campaign.
{mosads}“I don’t think that speaking the truth and calling things by their right names is in any way disqualifying in being able to do work going forward,” O’Rourke told Costa. “I think sooner rather than later, a majority of Americans — including Republicans — are going to see Trump for who he is, and this administration for what it’s done.”
“Outside of the Third Reich, give me another example of a Western leader who has called people of one faith inherently defective or dangerous or disqualified from being successful in that country,” O’Rourke continued.
“How did a modern country, well-educated, a source of innovation and ingenuity, and a source of moral leadership in the world, descend into that level of barbarity, producing a shame that lives with every single German to this day?” he asked.
During the interview, O’Rourke also brought up an instance from one of President Trump’s rallies earlier this year during which the president made a joke after a supporter yelled that migrants attempting to cross the border should be shot.
“That’s only in the Panhandle you can get away with that statement,” Trump joked at the time. “Only in the Panhandle.”
O’Rourke accused Trump of “giving the green light to that killer” with his comments.
“And that crowd roars in laughter and applause and the president with that shit-eating smirk on his face smiles and laughs in consent, giving the green light to that killer,” he said.