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WASHINGTON —Former U.S. President Donald Trump's recent comments that immigrants are "poisoning the blood" of the United States is drawing sharp rebukes from his critics, with President Joe Biden's campaign comparing Trump's words to those of Adolf Hitler.
"They're poisoning the blood of our country," Trump told supporters Saturday during a campaign appearance in the eastern state of New Hampshire. He added: "All over the world, they're coming into our country, from Africa, from Asia, all over the world."
Biden campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said that during the nearly 90-minute speech, "Donald Trump channeled his role models as he parroted [Nazi Germany leader] Adolf Hitler, praised [North Korean leader] Kim Jong Un and quoted [Russian President] Vladimir Putin while running for president on a promise to rule as a dictator and threaten American democracy."
Hitler, who became Germany's chancellor a decade after his failed coup attempt, went on to orchestrate a genocide that killed 6 million people and mired the world in a brutal conflict. Most of Hitler's victims were Jews, but his Nazi regime also targeted nomadic Europeans, Slavic people and sexual minorities, and systematically abused and dehumanized people of non-Germanic heritage.
In his best-known book, Mein Kampf, written while in prison for that insurrection attempt, Hitler wrote: "All great cultures of the past perished only because the originally creative race died out from blood poisoning."
A day after making the comments on stage, Trump reposted those words on his social media platform, and without explanation, also called Biden a "threat to democracy."
VOA contacted a Trump campaign spokesperson seeking their response to the Biden campaign's accusation that Trump was "parroting Hitler." The Trump campaign had not responded by publication.
The White House on Monday struck a more careful tone on Trump's comments.
VOA asked Monday whether the administration sees Trump's words as a threat to national security and whether they are taking new action to protect foreign-born Americans.
"Hopefully, you will forgive me for not weighing in on comments about campaign rhetoric," replied John Kirby, director of strategic communications for the National Security Council. "That wouldn't be appropriate for us here at the National Security Council."
The Congressional Budget Office said this year that there were about 45 million foreign-born U.S. residents in 2021, the last year Trump was president. And that as of 2019, roughly three-quarters of the foreign-born population were legal residents.
This week U.S. lawmakers are deliberating making changes to U.S. immigration policy. Biden is negotiating with Congressional Republicans who seek tougher immigration measures.
On Monday, Kirby told reporters that progress on a possible deal had been made over the weekend but did not give details.
"All I can tell you is that we're in good-faith negotiations with members of Congress about border security, and of course, funding for Ukraine and for Israel as a part of that," he said in response to VOA's question about how the rhetoric surrounding immigration might be contributing to those already tense negotiations.
While many Democratic politicians have been quick to condemn Trump, few Republican leaders have done so.
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who has spent much of his presidential campaign criticizing Trump's indictments, his conduct and his personality, said his comments are getting worse by the day.
"He's disgusting," Christie, who served in the Trump administration, said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday. He added: "The other problem with this is the Republicans who are saying this is OK."
Christie was not the only Republican pressed by U.S. weekend talk-show hosts to react to Trump's language.
"We're talking about language?" Senator Lindsey Graham, who has endorsed Trump, asked on Sunday's "Meet the Press" news show. "I could care less what language people use as long as we get it right."
According to recent polls, Trump is far and away the leader for the Republican nomination. And polls show Trump with a small lead over Biden if the November election were held today.