CNN host Jim Acosta pressed Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) on Donald Trump's Hitler-laden speech in New Hampshire over the weekend.
Burchett confessed that he didn't agree at all with Trump's language, but said he'd still be voting for Trump next November.
"I have one rule in my office: it says you never compare anything to the Holocaust or Hitler except the Holocaust or Hitler because of the, just of the horrendous nature of that time period," said Burchett.
President Joe Biden's campaign condemned the language Trump used, comparing it to Hitler because the ladder frequently compared people to "vermin" to dehumanize them and legitimize his attacks on them.
Trump claimed immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the United States. Blood purity was one of Hitler's obsessions. The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were to "protect German blood and German honor." They blocked marriages and sex between Germans and Jews. Trump hasn't indicated if he is willing to ban marriages to immigrants to help stop "poisoning the blood," as he alleges.
“Donald Trump channeled his role models as he parroted Adolf Hitler, praised Kim Jong Un, and quoted Vladimir Putin while running for president on a promise to rule as a dictator and threaten American democracy,” Biden-Harris 2024 campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement.
Acosta pointed Burchett to Hitler's manifesto in which he talks about the blood being poisoned by those they didn't want in the country.
It wasn't merely Jews however. Hitler thought that physical and mental disabilities were genetically passed along and thus those people shouldn't be allowed to have children included in his "Master Race." Ultimately, they were the first to be slaughtered because they were declared "unworthy of life." They were killed as part of the Nazi the "T-4," or "euthanasia," program.
Acosta explained to Burchett that Hitler wrote about the "great civilizations" of the past collapsed because the "creative race died out" due to the "contamination of the blood." He asked if Trump should quit using language like that.
Burchett said, "Any kind of comparison to 'Mein Kampf' I think is pretty horrendous actually." Then again, he explained, he wasn't there, "I didn't hear what he said. Honestly, this is about the first I've heard of it because I don't — I don't usually follow the national media as well as I should. "
"I don't know that that does us any good, but the reality is he's touched upon a nerve that this illegal immigration thing has caused" ongoing problems. He went on to pivot to attacking Democrats for not fixing the immigration problem. The GOP solution is to build a wall.
Acosta wouldn't let him off the hook, however.
"Would you want to be on a campaign stage with the former president if he's saying something like immigrants are poisoning the blood of the country or even undocumented immigrants are poisoning the blood of the country?" asked Acosta.
"That's extreme for me completely. I would not have chosen those words," said Burchett.
So, Acosta asked if he would still vote for Trump, and Burchett said he "absolutely" would.
Acosta asked "Even if he's saying things like poisoning the blood of the country" Burchett is still willing to support it. The Republican dismissed the language. While he didn't call it "locker room talk," he said it was "campaign bravado." Then he blamed it on Trump being from New York.
"As you well know, we don't usually talk like that, and he's from New York, and that's the way folks — he's Trump being Trump," said Burchett. "It's campaign bravado. You get up onstage. You're feeding off the audience, and you just let it rip. That's exactly what he does, and frankly, that's why a lot of people like him. That's why you're seeing his numbers are going up even —"
Acosta cut in to say it isn't just campaign talk, asking "isn't it something different?"
"I don't think he's going to be — there's no way in the world he's going to be a dictator for a day, Jim. you know that, and I know that. There are so many stopgaps in place. You just can't..." claimed Burchett before being cut off.
Acosta said Trump has already attempted to overthrow an election, something Burchett supported on Jan. 6, 2021. The congressman went on to argue that the people arrested on Jan. 6 aren't being treated nicely enough.
See the debate in the video below or at the link here.
Acosta hammers Republican claiming Trump is using Hitler language because he's from NYCyoutu.be
