Eric Swalwell ‘Trump Is America’s Hitler’ Remark at Rally Sparks Viral Outrage – Then a Plot Twist
California Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell faced outrage on social media Saturday after a clip of him from a “No Kings” protest rally went viral on the right for his opening line about President Donald Trump.
“Donald Trump is America’s Hitler,” Swalwell said as his first sentence upon taking the mic at the D.C. “No Kings” protest event. The protest crowd cheered.
A seven-second clip of that moment was shared on X, and went mega-viral all day Saturday and into Sunday, with many of those responding or re-sharing remarking on his rhetoric in the context of the murder of an elected Democrat and her husband in Minnesota, and the attempted murder of two others on Saturday in a targeted attack.
The most prominent post of a clip from Swalwell’s remarks, with over half a million views, argued the Congressman should be “censured” for “inciting violence” with the comment.
Much later in the day, Swalwell responded with his own clip, which was 23 seconds longer than the one that went viral.
In that longer version, Swalwell goes on to say: “That’s not even what I have said about him. That’s what his own vice president called him.”
“His own vice-president probably said the harshest words anyone in America has ever said about Donald Trump,” Swalwell continued. “No Democrat has even said that. But his own Vice President called him America’s Hitler.”
Swalwell is referring to comments made by Vice President JD Vance in a private chat with a friend, in a message that was later made public.
It’s not the first time Swalwell has brought up the past comments by Vance, though in this case he was met with cheers from the crowd reacting to the statement itself before he attributed it to Vance.
Swalwell’s assertion that “No Democrat has even said that” about Trump is incorrect, however. Many comparisons of Trump to Hitler and the Nazis have been made, almost routinely, by Democrats, including by the former President and Vice President.
South Carolina Democrat Rep. James Clyburn, for example, is among those who has repeatedly made such comments, including that he sees Trump as “another Hitler.” And Swalwell himself has made many such comparisons over the years.
It’s also worth pointing out that by adding, at Saturday’s rally, “he ain’t proven us wrong in these first 150 days,” Swalwell implicitly endorsed Vance’s past description and applied it to the actual events of the current presidential term. He followed up on that by listing the ways in which he and the crowd see Trump as embodying the Hitler characterization.
Watch the full video of Swalwell’s remarks at the rally from News2Share here. Below is a transcript of his full remarks.
SWALWELL: Donald Trump is America’s Hitler.
CROWD: Yeah! Woo!
SWALWELL: That’s not even what I have said about him. That’s what his own vice president called him. His own vice-president probably said the harshest words anyone in America has ever said about Donald Trump. No Democrat has even said that. But his own Vice President called him America’s Hitler. Well, he ain’t proven us wrong in these first 150 days.
These protests, by the way, they are not only about the unjust arrests of immigrants, otherwise known as our friends and neighbors who came to America in awe of hard work and our freedom. The protests, and the bigger fear that has gripped America, is a mad king who is attempting to silence those who dissent. And just think about who he has gone after in the last couple weeks.
LaMonica McIver, a first-term congresswoman, indicted for doing her job and showing up at an ICE facility. Hannah Duggan, a circuit court judge in Wisconsin. This past week, California’s senior senator, Alex Padilla. And, this is probably the most grotesque: a four-year-old American citizen battling cancer.
CROWD: Shame! Shame!
SWALWELL: So, somewhere between the four-year-old American citizen battling cancer who was deported and the senior senator from California who was arrested. Is the rest of us. If he can go after any of them, he can come after all of us.
CROWD: Yeah
SWALWELL: But let’s also talk about who he has freed. Sixteen-hundred insurrectionists who violently stormed the Capitol on January 6th, many of whom assaulted police officers. What is the difference between these two groups? One was for Donald and one was against dictators. Republicans for decades have screamed at the top of their lungs about the Second Amendment. But the First Amendment is first because it’s the most sacred. Many in our country are scared because this president’s immigration party is not what any of you asked for. You were told that he was going to remove the most violent criminals in our community. He’s terrorizing families, chasing farm workers through fields, going to day labor sites, turning over car washes. Nobody asked for this. And now, now, using our constitution, he has to pay for this.
CROWD: Yeah! Let’s go!
SWALWELL: I was an impeachment manager in the second impeachment of Donald Trump.
CROWD: Woo!
SWALWELL: And I’ll never forget what happened the night before we started the trial. We were in a small room just off the Senate floor and an IT vendor team came in. They weren’t affiliated with either party, they were just a contract team who came in to make sure that the room that the managers were using had all the IT needs that we’d use for the trial. So they walked us through the laptops, the printers, how to use the TV. Of course, as one of the youngest on the team, I had to ask for the Wi-Fi password. I was told it was under the network name, Managers. And so I pulled the IT vendor aside, who was probably 23, 24, after their presentation and I said, I have to be honest, this is really impressive. We just impeached him and you have this fully functioning room ready for us to go. And without any irony, he looked at me and he said, ‘Well, we were the team that did the first impeachment and we figured you all would be back, so we just left everything up.” We know who this guy is!
CROWD: Yeah, we do!
SWALWELL: And we are coming back for a third time. So, if you aren’t doing everything that the Constitution gives you to do to hold a mad king accountable, you’re not doing it right. He’s got to go! He’s go to go. He has got to go.
CROWD: He has got to go!
SWALWELL: And we’re not helpless to make that happen. Small victories are going to bring us big victories. We’re seeing the small victories like winning in Wisconsin when Elon Musk spent $30 million there, and the voters there, with their help, said democracy will not be bought. We’re winning in the courts. Donald Trump is getting his ass kicked in the courts. He’s losing in front of Trump-appointed judges. And the press is still fiercely reporting. 60 minutes, credit to them. They were told, stop covering him negatively, and they keep doing it. We need more independent-minded journalists who are not going to cave or fold to Donald Trump. And you are showing up at the town squares. I’m doing two town halls a month in Republican districts. I’ll be in Orange County and Youngkin’s district next week. Two-thousand rallies today to say no king in America, no king ever. And we’re going to march with those small victories to New Jersey and Virginia this November and win the governor’s race is there.
CROWD: Yeah!
SWALWELL: And then we’re gonna win the midterms.
CROWD: Yeah!
SWALWELL: And then we’re going to get to work.
CROWD: Let’s go!
SWALWELL: So many more will be wrongly imprisoned or arrested over the next few years. But what Donald Trump does not get is that while he might have the power to take away an individual’s freedom, he’ll never have the right to take away all of our voices.
CROWD: No, he won’t.
SWALWELL: That’s the first promise of America. And to that I say, we surrender to no one and never to a mad king. I’m all in. I know you’re all in! He has got to go!
CROWD: He has got to go, he has got go, thank you Mayday.
