In what I called in an X post the "laugh line o' the day," Nicolle Wallace opened her Thursday MSNBC show on a solemn note. She even managed to keep a straight face while saying:
"On this program, we try our hardest not to ever amplify [Trump's] most dangerous comments."
Wallace then promptly proceeded to give the lie to her claim, by resorting to the liberal media's most tired cliché: Trump = Hitler.
Wallace played a clip of Trump decrying uncontrolled immigration, something that even Biden has acknowledged, with his newly announced plan to build a wall, to be a serious problem. This sounds quite a bit like Trump's opening blast in 2015 -- remember "they're not sending their best"?
TRUMP: Nobody has any idea where these people are coming from, and we know they come from prisons, we know they come from mental institutions, insane asylums. We know they're terrorists. Nobody has ever seen like what we're witnessing right now. It is a very sad thing for our country. It's poisoning the blood of our country.
"Poisoning the blood" clearly sends the "dog whistle" in liberal minds. Wallace then brought in the head of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt.
Attempting a triple-bank shot, Wallace quoted a blog, which in turn quoted Laura Barron-Lopez at PBS, who in turn quoted historian/hysteric Ruth Ben-Ghiat, who said that the language Trump used echoes language used by Hitler.
Greenblatt proceeded, after an Al Gore-worthy deep sigh, to agree: "The language that he used in that interview is the same, or intended to evoke, the kind of language that's been used by many who hold vicious anti-immigrant, racist, antisemitic views, like Hitler!"
Yup, right on, Nicolle! Absolutely no attempt by you to amplify Trump's comments—he's just Hitler!
The ADL tries to present itself as a group combatting antisemitism. But as Cornell law professor William Jacobson has noted, the ADL has remade itself as a "social justice organization," and "a functional arm of the Democratic party." Greenblatt also uttered a hilarious phrase with a straight face: "At ADL, we are ferociously nonpartisan." Then he goes on to say we need to build a coalition to fight Trump's "fascist worldview."
PS: As Nicolle & Co. decry "violent rhetoric," we can recall when she implied a few months after January 6 that "terrorism" of those who push election denial and think "Covid restrictions are unnecessary" might need some "drone strikes."
Here's a transcript.
Nicolle Wallace, after saying she tries her hardest not to amplify the comments of Donald Trump, immediately analogizing him to Hitler, was sponsored in part by Citi, Humana, and Procter & Gamble, maker of Always Discreet.
MSNBC
Deadline White House
10/5/23
4:01 PMNICOLLE WALLACE: On this program, we try our hardest not to ever amplify [Trump's] most dangerous comments. But we're going to play them for yo uhere today right now, because we believe you should hear the comments from the man himself.
DONALD TRUMP: Nobody has any idea where these people are coming from, and we know they come from prisons, we know they come from mental institutions, insane asylums. We know they're terrorists. Nobody has ever seen like what we're witnessing right now. It is a very sad thing for our country. It's poisoning the blood of our country.
WALLACE: It's poisoning the blood of our country. [Sighs] So much to say, right? But what makes these comments even more dangerous is the fact that Trump's rhetoric and his ideas, we know by now what happens to them. They seep into the fabric of a large swath of our country, largely people who identify as Republicans.
. . .
Deeply dangerous, racist attacks on migrants by an ex-president with a history of formenting violence in America is where we start today . . . The CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, is back.
Jonathan. I want to start with you. I want to read you something that our friends over at Matto blog have reported. This is from Laura Barrón-López, the White House correspondent for PBS, who told her viewers last night, "I checked with a historian, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, and she said that the language that he's using echoes language used in Nazi propaganda by Adolf Hitler, when Adolf Hitler actually said that Jewish people and migrants were, quote, causing a blood poisoning of Germany.
Your reaction to Trump's comments?
JONATHAN GREENBLATT: [Extended sigh] Well -- in some ways it feels like, there we go again, Nicolle. I mean, to be frank, I don't know how much Donald Trump is a student of history, or if he even reads books, and what's on his nightstand. But I do know, as the reporter said last night on PBS News Hour, that the language that he used in that interview is the same, or intended to evoke, the kind of language that's been used by many who hold vicious anti-immigrant, racist, antisemitic views, like Hitler!
