Bernie Sanders Walks Back Comparison of Donald Trump to Hitler
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders asserted in an interview that he did not compare Donald Trump to Hitler when he warned of a “lunatic …. stirring up racial hatred” during a campaign rally over the weekend in Wisconsin.
“No, I did not compare Trump to Hitler,” Sanders told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week. “But I will do everything that I can to stop this type of hatred and hate talk that we are hearing.”
Sanders made the comments when asked about Trump’s comments involving Muslims and banning them from the United States. He went on to discuss his family’s history as Holocaust survivors during a Saturday town hall meeting in Milwaukee.
“Some of you know I’m Jewish. My dad came — my father came to this country at the age of 17 from Poland. He came over; other people in his family did not come over. Most people died. Children died. Relatives of my father. So that is in my heart to see what a lunatic can do by stirring up racial hatred. And we’re not going to allow that to take place in this country,”
Wisconsin voters will go to the polls for the Democratic primary elections on Tuesday.
When asked on Sunday by Stephanopoulos if he was really “comparing Trump to Hitler,” Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont, said that he did not make that comparison, and was instead responding to the fears that Trump’s rhetoric has instilled in Muslims.
“What I talked about there was a Muslim woman there next to me, and she is telling me that, what is true, is that people in the Muslim community are very fearful now. She was describing a kid who now locks the door at night,” Sanders told Stephanopoulos.
“And what I was saying is I’m going to do everything that I can to kind of stop those Islamophobic attacks so that kids in this country who happen to be Muslim are afraid. No, I did not compare Trump to Hitler. But I will do everything that I can to stop this type of hatred and hate talk that we are hearing,” he said.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
