President Biden criticized former President Donald Trump for calling his political opponents “vermin,” saying the language parrots Nazi German rhetoric during the 1930s.
“In the last few days, Trump has said if he returns to office he’s going to go after all those who oppose him and wipe out what he called the vermin in America, quote ‘the vermin in America’ — a specific phrase with a specific meaning,” Mr. Biden said Tuesday at a fundraiser in San Francisco.
“It echoes language you heard in Nazi Germany in the ’30s. And it isn’t even the first time,” the president said. “Trump also recently talked about ’the blood of America is being poisoned. The blood of America is being poisoned.’ Again, echoes the same phrases used in Nazi Germany.”
Among the attendees at the fundraiser were California Gov. Gavin Newsom, San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Hollywood titan Jeffrey Katzenberg.
Mr. Biden’s comments come after the former president told a crowd last weekend in New Hampshire that if elected, he would “root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country, that lie and steal and cheat on elections.”
He also used the same language in a Truth Social post from Saturday, where he pledged to “root out [those groups] in honor of our great veterans on Veterans Day.”
Mr. Trump in October said in an interview with The National Pulse that the influx of immigrants into the U.S. is “poisoning the blood of our country.”
“It’s poisoning the blood of our country. It’s so bad, and people are coming in with disease,” he said. “People are coming in with every possible thing that you could have.”
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement that “it’s despicable and racist [for Biden] to make that disgusting connection.”
“But I wouldn’t expect him to conduct himself in an honorable manner. He’s clearly suffering from a severe case of Trump derangement syndrome and should get professional help,” he said. “The fact is that there has been no bigger ally to Israel and the Jewish people than President Trump.”
Mr. Cheung said of Mr. Trump, “He renewed America’s cherished friendship and alliance with Israel and took historic action to promote peace in the Middle East. Whereas Biden’s weak and disastrous leadership has made America and the rest of the world less safe.”
Mr. Trump is the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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