Governor J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) said Sunday on MSNBC’s “Inside” that former President Donald Trump is “dangerous for our democracy” because his language has echoed Nazi Germany.
Pritzer said, “The rhetoric that’s being used by Donald Trump, the rhetoric that’s being used by some of the MAGA extremists, it is rhetoric that was used in the 1930s in Germany. I am very concerned about the direction of the country if we see policies like what Donald Trump is espousing come to light for our country.”
Anchor Jen Psaki said, “I think you’re referencing, in part, he used the word vermin, just recently, to describe who he was targeting. As one of the leading Jewish governors in the country, what did you think when you heard that?”
Pritzer said, “Well, it’s just one in a long series of remarks, words that Donald Trump has used that are unfortunately reminiscent of the past. Let me just be clear: in Germany, in the 1930s, people that they didn’t want to have power; people that they wanted to separate and segregate they began calling them immigrants. Even people that had been in Germany for generations, Jews who were doctors, lawyers, in government at the time, became known as immigrants even though they were German. This is a way to begin to segregate people, and then eventually, at least what happened to Germany’s, they turned it into a way to almost humanize. And then they did, in fact, dehumanize and kill people.”
He continued, “I don’t know where it’s going with Donald Trump. What I can tell you is that the things that he talks about are frightening to those of us who know the history of Europe in the 1930s and 40s. I’m deeply concerned about his predilection for revenge and what that will mean for, you know, groups of people that didn’t support him in the 2024 election if, in fact, he gets elected.”
Pritzer added, “Donald Trump is dangerous for our democracy. He’s dangerous for specific minority groups in the United States.”
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