Days after former President Donald Trump garnered headlines for an immigration-focused speech (and Truth Social post) which critics said used language reminiscent of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, Republicans in Congress are slowly but surely coming out of the woodwork to criticize his rhetoric.
The former commander-in-chief said during a campaign stop in New Hampshire Saturday that immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country”—a comment that Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) on Tuesday called “deplorable.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) also quipped to reporters, “It strikes me that it didn’t bother him when he appointed Elaine Chao Secretary of Transportation,” referring to his wife, who immigrated to the U.S. from Taiwan when she was eight years old.
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Collins raged against Trump’s sentiment in an interview with The Independent: “I thought that was horrible, that those comments are–just have no place, particularly from a former president. They’re deplorable.”
The comments also elicited a denouncement from Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD), who somehow managed to blame President Joe Biden for Trump’s rhetoric.
“I think that that rhetoric is very inappropriate, but this administration’s policies are feeding right into it,” he said. “That type of rhetoric is what happens when you don’t have a border policy that works.”
“I think we should celebrate our diversity,” he added.
Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie, a frequent Trump critic in recent months, labeled Trump’s actions as “disgusting” and “dog whistling to Americans” in a CNN interview.
According to The Hill, Trump also praised multiple authoritarian leaders during his weekend speech, including North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung appeared unconcerned about the growing backlash among Senate Republicans, saying the former president “has by far the most Senate endorsements in this race, people who are fighters and want to Make America Great Again.”
Read it at NBC News
