CNN’s Abby Phillip Cites Hitler In Blistering Roundup Of ‘Objectively More Violent’ Trump Rants
CNN anchor Abby Phillip cited Adolf Hitler in a blistering roundup illustrating what she called ex-President Donald Trump’s “objectively more violent” rants amid outrage over his remarks about poison blood.
Trump is under fire from critics over a rant in which he said immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” a phrase with chilling historical echoes.
“Nobody has ever seen anything like we are witnessing right now. It is a very sad thing for our country. It’s poisoning the blood of our country. It’s so bad. And people are coming in with disease, people are coming in with every possible thing that you can have,” Trump said.
On Friday night’s edition of CNN Primetime, Phillip opened the show with a roundup of recent Trump rants, including the “poison blood” remark she noted was a near-echo of Hitler:
ABBY PHILLIP: In Adolf Hitler’s manifesto, he wrote, “all the great civilizations of the past became decadent because the originally creative race died out as a result of contamination of the blood.”
He also links the poison which has invaded the national blood to, quote, an influx of foreign blood.
The blood reference is also reminiscent of the chants by white supremacists in Charlottesville in 2017. And tonight, Donald Trump is now under fire for similar language about immigrants.
Good evening. I’m Abby Phillip. And here is what the former president and current Republican frontrunner just said about immigrants.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: We know they’re terrorists. Nobody has ever seen anything like we’re witnessing right now. It is a very sad thing for our country. It’s poisoning the blood of our country. It’s so bad. And people are coming in with disease, people are coming in with every possible thing that you could have.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Now, we don’t know what really inspired Trump to use that language or what was even in his head, but this episode comes as Trump’s rhetoric, just generally, has become noticeably and objectively more violent in recent weeks.
After one of his indictments, he warned, quote, if you go after me, I’m coming after you. Trump accused the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, of treason and he suggested he deserved to be executed. In his retirement speech, Milley indirectly responded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GEN. MARK MILLEY, FORMER CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: We don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator. We don’t take an oath to an individual. We take an oath to the Constitution, and we take an oath to the idea that is America, and we’re willing to die to protect it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Now, as crime has surged in many American cities, Trump recently endorsed extrajudicial killings of shoplifters in front of a crowd of fawning supporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Very simply, if you rob a store, you can fully expect to be shot as you are leaving that store, shot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Also during a recent rally, he mocked former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband after he was violently attacked with a hammer inside of their home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I will stand up to crazy Nancy Pelosi, who ruined San Francisco. How’s her husband doing, by the way, anybody know? And she’s against building a wall at our border even though she has a wall around her house, which obviously didn’t do a very good job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: And this week, as he turned to the courthouse into a campaign stop during a civil fraud trial, he earned a limited gag order for this rhetoric, for attacking a court employee on social media. And then he turned and escalated the rhetoric against the judge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: This is a judge that should be disbarred. This is a judge that should be out of office. This is a judge that some people say could be charged criminally for what he’s doing. He’s interfering with an election, and it’s a disgrace.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: And there’s more. He then attacked the attorney general, prosecuting him in New York, Letitia James, who also responded to him this week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We have a racist attorney general who’s a horror show.
This is a disgrace, and you ought to go after this attorney general because she’s turning off everybody from coming in. LETITIA JAMES, NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL: Trump’s comments were offensive, they were baseless, they were void of any facts nor any evidence. What they were, were comments that unfortunately fomented violence, comments that I would describe as race-baiting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Now, it’s worth noting many of these officials have increased security because of this kind of rhetoric. And during a perilous time for public servants, just this week, in a separate incident, a man showed up in the Wisconsin capitol looking for the governor. He was armed with a loaded handgun.
He was arrested, but then later, he left on bail. Hours after that, he showed up at the Capitol again. This time, he was armed with a baton and a loaded assault-style rifle.
Watch above via CNN Primetime.
