John McCain Uses Nazi ‘Blood And Soil’ Slogan In Stark Warning About Trump
Image by Getty Images
By Sam Kestenbaum October 17, 2017
Senator John McCain on Monday mentioned a Nazi slogan and warned Americans against buying into “half-baked, spurious nationalism” in what appeared to be a stark warning about the dangers of President Trump and white nationalism.
Speaking in Philadelphia, where he was being honored with the Liberty Medal by the National Constitution Center, McCain said, “We live in a land of ideals, not blood and soil.”
To refuse US leadership for half-baked nationalism is as unpatriotic as any dogma consigned to ash heap of history https://t.co/Y07Sxa1b7V pic.twitter.com/Jf1nit7X3n
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) October 17, 2017
The slogan “blood and soil” was chanted by white nationalists at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia — alongside others, like “Jew will not replace us” — and is an explicit Nazi reference, coming from the German “Blut und Boden,” a phrase popularized by Nazi thinker Richard Walter Darre.
McCain has regularly sparred with Trump, who mocked him during the presidential campaign for being captured and held as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War.
_Email Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum _
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
