Sen. Tommy Tuberville expressed dissatisfaction with former President Donald Trump’s Nazi-like rhetoric on immigrants, stating that he was “mad” it wasn’t more forceful.
While many Republican senators, including those from conservative states, hesitated to endorse Trump’s comments, Tuberville insisted that Trump should have gone further in characterizing immigrants as a threat, claiming they are “poisoning the blood” of America, evoking comparisons to Adolf Hitler, who used similar language to describe Jews.
“I’m mad he wasn’t tougher than that because if you’re seeing what happens at the border, we’re being overrun,” Tuberville told The Independent’s Eric Michael Garcia.
In contrast to Tuberville’s stance, other senators, such as Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), distanced themselves from Trump’s rhetoric.
Capito emphasized their shared immigrant backgrounds, saying, “I obviously don’t agree with that; I mean, we’re all children of immigrants.” Tillis labeled Trump’s remarks as “unhelpful rhetoric,” and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) remarked that he “certainly wouldn’t have said that” about immigrants. Notably, there was no call for Trump to apologize despite the controversial nature of his repeated statements.
Trump’s language extended beyond immigration, with him also referring to political opponents as “vermin,” a term reminiscent of the Nazis’ dehumanization tactics against Jews.
Despite the divisive nature of Trump’s statements, there has been no call for an apology, even as he continues to make similar remarks.
Beyond immigration, Trump’s language has extended to describing political opponents as “vermin,” drawing unsettling parallels to historical dehumanization tactics employed by the Nazis against Jews. The contrasting perspectives within the Republican party on the appropriateness of such rhetoric underscore the ongoing internal debate over the party’s messaging and its potential impact on public discourse.