The latest on the race for the White House and
former President Donald Trump drawing fire for comments over the
weekend attacking immigrants and quoting Vladimir Putin with approval.
Rachel Scott is in Washington with more on the reaction
from the campaign trail.
Rachel, good morning.
Good morning. Former President Donald Trump is holding a commanding
lead in this Republican primary,
but he is now facing criticism for lavishing praise on
dictators and ramping up his attacks on immigrants using phrases
that have clear ties to white supremacy and Hitler.
On the campaign trail, former President Donald Trump is drawing
big crowds in a swing through early voting states,
but coming under fire for these anti immigrant comments he
made in New Hampshire this weekend.
They're poisoning the blood of our country.
That's what they've done. That language echoes white supremacist and
was used by Adolf Hitler and his autobiographical manifesto Mein
Kampf,
where Hitler criticized mixing races,
calling it quote blood poisoning.
Trump has repeatedly used the phrase she's disgusting.
And what he's doing is dog whistling to Americans who
feel absolutely under stress and strain from the economy and
from the conflicts around the world.
And he's dog whistling it to blame it on people
from areas that don't look like us.
If elected, Trump promised to carry out mass deportations,
deputizing the National Guard to arrest undocumented immigrants.
I will terminate every open borders policy of the Biden
administration.
Stop the invasion. Of our southern border and begin the
largest domestic deportation operation in American history.
On the campaign trail, the former president also praising dictators,
at one point invoking Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Using quotes from a top US adversary to attack President
Biden.
Vladimir Putin. Has anybody ever heard of Vladimir Putin?
Of Russia says that Biden's,
and this is a quote,
politically motivated persecution of his political rival is very good
for Russia because it shows the rottenness of the American
political system.
The Biden campaign, responding with a blistering statement,
writing Trump parroted Adolf Hitler,
praised Kim Jong Un and quoted Vladimir Putin while running
for president on a promise to rule as a dictator
and threaten American democracy.
And Trump's own words turning off some Republican voters?
He takes things to the extremes.
And this is part of the drama we're trying to
get away from.
There's no reason for it,
but the former president is still the far and away
frontrunner ahead of his Republican rivals by 50 points.
He's not afraid to hurt people's feelings,
and there's nothing wrong with that.
People really need to toughen up a little bit.
Trump, of course, has pleaded not guilty to 91 criminal
charges,
making this Republican primary unconventional.
But our friends over at 538 pulled the historical data
and found that no presidential candidate has ever been this
far ahead in the national polls and gone on to
lose the nomination guys. All right,
Rachel. Thanks so much.