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After Donald Trump spent the weekend reiterating his belief that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” echoing similar phrasing used by Adolf Hitler, some Republicans expressed mild unease with the former president’s rhetoric.
“I obviously don’t agree with that,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia said. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina called the comments “unhelpful,” while Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi added that he “certainly wouldn’t have said that.”
These weren’t exactly full-throated condemnations, but these rebukes at least acknowledged there was a problem with Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric. As The Daily Beast noted overnight, Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York went in a very different direction.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) sought out a marginally less offensive interpretation of Donald Trump’s declaration Saturday that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” claiming on CNN Monday that he was actually referring to Democratic policies that are doing the “poisoning.”
As difficult as this might be to believe, the GOP congresswoman told a national television audience, “When he said they are 'poisoning,' I think he was talking about the Democratic policies.” When CNN’s Abby Phillip tried to remind her guest about reality, Malliotakis said that Trump “never said ‘immigrants are poisoning.’”
In case there were any doubts, the New York Republican didn’t appear to be kidding. Her defense wasn’t offered with a wink and a nod. Malliotakis presented this defense as if the public was supposed to take it seriously.
To the extent that reality still has any meaning, it was in early October when the likely GOP presidential nominee first started echoing Hitler’s “Mein Kampf,” telling a conservative outlet, in reference to migrants entering the United States, “Nobody has any idea where these people are coming from. ... It is a very sad thing for our country. It’s poisoning the blood of our country.”
Note, Trump said “these people,” despite the fact that Malliotakis said Trump has referred to “Democratic policies.”
Over the weekend in New Hampshire, the former president doubled down, referring to the millions of “people” who are “poisoning the blood of our country.” Trump added, “Not just in South America. Not just in the three or four countries that we think about, but all over the world they’re coming into our country. From Africa, from Asia, all over the world. They’re pouring into our country. Nobody’s even looking at them. They just come in.”
Imagine being an elected member of Congress and thinking, “Maybe I can convince voters to believe that Trump meant ‘Democratic policies’ are ‘pouring into our country.”
For good measure, let’s also not forget that on Saturday night, Trump used his social media platform to argue, “ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IS POISONING THE BLOOD OF OUR NATION.”
It was almost exactly 48 hours later when Malliotakis went on CNN and argued that Trump “never said ‘immigrants are poisoning.’”
Look, I'm aware of the challenge. If I were a member of Congress, and my party’s likely presidential nominee started using Hitler-like rhetoric about immigrants, I’d struggle to think of a defense, too.
But that doesn’t justify Malliotakis trying to gaslight a national television audience. The idea that Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric isn’t actually anti-immigrant rhetoric is demonstrably ridiculous.
It was 11 weeks ago today when the former president first started using the “poisoning the blood” framing, which means his Republican allies have had more than two months to come up with some kind of rationalization for Trump’s willingness to use ugly and dangerous rhetoric previously endorsed by notorious fascists.
If the best GOP officials can come up with is, “I think he was talking about the Democratic policies,” the party should just concede that it has no defense at all.