Wolf Blitzer Presses Former Pence Aide on Trump’s ‘Vermin’ Comments: ‘Why Aren’t Republicans Speaking Out?’
CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer confronted Marc Short, the former chief of staff to 48th Vice President Mike Pence, about former President Donald Trump’s controversial “vermin” remarks on Monday.
Trump received backlash after he vowed over the weekend to “root out the Communists, Marxists, Fascists, and Radical Left Thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.”
Asked for his response to Trump’s remark, as well as to former Rep. Liz Cheney’s (R-WY) claim that Trump used “the same Nazi propaganda that mobilized 1930s-40s Germany to evil,” Short said:
Look, I don’t think that Donald Trump is a Nazi. I think he has, as you know, a son-in-law who’s Jewish. He’s embraced the Jewish faith. Having said that, Wolf, I think that for any limited government conservative, it’s anathema to the notion of using the government to go after your political opponents.
In fact, when he uses the same lines and talks about communist and socialists, for many in the conservative movement, they started in opposition to what was happening across the globe, behind the iron curtain, in communist-socialist countries. So for any Republican candidate to adopt the language, ‘we’re going to use the government to go after political opponents,’ I think that’s counter to what we conservatives believe.
Blitzer shot back, “The question, Mark, is why aren’t Republicans speaking out when Trump calls his political opponents vermin? That’s what the Nazis called the Jews leading up to the Holocaust.”
Short responded, “I understand, Wolf, but I think the reality is that Republicans are probably tired of feeling like they always have to respond to Donald Trump, and think that he often… I think he often does this to be provocative, to get more coverage than he otherwise would be getting.”
CNN political commentator Ashley Allison then weighed in, arguing, “Well you have to respond to Donald Trump if he’s going to be your party’s nominee. You can’t ignore him. He’s running, he’s leading in the polls, and if you don’t respond to him, it’s somewhat enabling him.”
Watch above via CNN.
