Republicans confronted after Donald Trump accused of 'parroting Hitler' with migrants speech

Republican politicians were confronted on Sunday (December 16) after a speech by Donald Trump on immigration that “parroted Adolf Hitler”.

The former president was accused of invoking the Nazi leader at a rally in New Hampshire, where he said immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the United States.

He said: “They poison mental institutions and prisons all over the world.

“Not just in South America, not just in three or four countries that we think about, but all over the world.

“They’re coming into our country from Africa, from Asia, all over the world.”

The comments sparked immediate backlash against Republicans.

In a Sunday interview on NBC, South Carolina senator Lindsay Graham, a longtime Trump supporter, was challenged on the issue when the presenter said he was “parroting Adolf Hitler”.

Graham was unrepentant, saying he “could care less” about the choice of words.

“We’re talking about language. I could care less what language people use as long as we get it right.

“If you think you’re going to win the debate on illegal immigration by picking a line out of the Trump speech, most Americans understand the game has to change, that we're under threat, that we’re going to get attacked, that our border has completely been obliterated," he said.

“If you’re talking about the language Trump uses rather than trying to fix it, that’s a losing strategy for the Biden administration.”

Graham conceded that Trump “has a way of talking sometimes I disagree with, but he actually delivered on the border”.

But he added: “If the only thing you want to talk about on immigration is the way Donald Trump talks, you’re missing a lot.”

The comments were immediately denounced by Joe Biden’s campaign. It said he was channelling Hitler, Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin.

It added that he is “betting he can win this election by scaring and dividing this country. He's wrong”.

And Republican rival Chris Christie said Trump’s comments showed he is unfit for office.

He said: “He’s disgusting. And what he’s doing is dog-whistling to Americans who feel absolutely under stress and strain from the economy and from the conflicts around the world.

“And he’s dog-whistling to blame it on people from areas that don’t look like us.”

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