Sen. Mazie Hirono Blasts Trump Claim He’s a Nationalist: It’s ‘Racism…Anti-Semitic…White Supremacy’

Senator Mazie Hirono, a Hawaii Democrat, blasted President Donald Trump‘s comments about the migrant caravan making its way from Central America to the United States, as well as his recent declaration that he’s a “nationalist.”

Trump has claimed this week, without evidence, that there are “unknown Middle Easterners” infiltrating the caravan with the aim of making it across the U.S. Souther Border. His unfounded claim appears to have been inspired by misleading Fox News coverage, and he admitted on Tuesday that he had no evidence to support it.

On CNN Tuesday, anchor Wolf Blitzer asked Hirono about Trump’s claims.

“Well, note that he had no proof of it,” she said. “And it’s just yet another example of how he stokes fear and loathing into the electorate. He knows he’s speaking to his base.”

“The words he uses, he says, he makes up his own definitions,” she continued. “We should stop giving him the benefit of the doubt, that he doesn’t understand what he means when he refers to nationalists or any of these other terms. These are not not just dog whistles, but it’s bullhorns. It’s racism, it’s basically for many people it’s anti-semitic, it’s white supremacy. He knows very well what he’s talking about even though he professes otherwise.”

Trump declared himself a nationalist at his Monday night rally with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. When asked by reporters about the claim on Tuesday, he doubled down:

“All I want for our country is to be treated well, to be treated with respect,” Trump said. “For many years other countries that are allies of ours, so-called allies, they have not treated our country fairly, so in that sense I am absolutely a nationalist and I’m proud of it.”

Watch above, via CNN.

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