When questioned about his use of terms such as “vermin” and “poisoning the blood” to describe immigrants, terms historically used by Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, former President Donald Trump not only stood by his choice of words but repeated them. He said, “I didn’t know that, but that’s what they say. Because our country is being poisoned.”
In an interview with Howard Kurtz on Fox News, which was broadcast less than a day after Trump referred to some migrants as “not people… these are animals” at a rally, he made these remarks.
During the interview, Kurtz asked Trump, “When you talk about illegal migrants — and after three years obviously the Democrats bear the primary responsibility — why do you use words like vermin and poisoning of the blood?” He pointed out that such language is immediately associated with Hitler and Mussolini by the press.
Trump replied, “That’s what they say. I didn’t know that, but that’s what they say. Because our country is being poisoned.” He continued, “Look, we can be nice about it — we can talk about, ‘Oh, I want to be politically correct’ — but we have people coming in from prisons and jails, long-term murderers… They’re all being released into our country. These are murderers, these are people at the highest level of crime, and then you have mental institutions and insane asylums… and then you have terrorists pouring in at a level we have never seen before.”
Trump provided no evidence to support his xenophobic claims. Kurtz then cynically suggested that Trump uses this rhetoric to dominate the news cycle.
Sources informed Rolling Stone last year that Trump prefers inflammatory language and believes his statement that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of the nation” is a “great line.” One source mentioned that Trump has even privately questioned if his comments about immigrants have been “too nice.”
When the conversation shifted to abortion, Trump took pride in “things we’ve done with Roe [v. Wade] by killing it,” claiming partial credit for the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the landmark ruling that provided federal abortion protections. He also expressed openness to implementing a national abortion ban at 16 weeks.
Trump made unfounded claims that “The Democrats are the radicals on this issue because [they say] it’s okay to have an abortion at seven, eight, nine months, and even after birth.”
Kurtz interjected, “I know that’s in dispute.”
This understatement addresses the false conservative narrative that demonizes and stigmatizes abortion. Trump further claimed that former Virginia governor, Democrat Ralph Northam, suggested discussing whether to “kill the baby” after birth with the mother.
Kurtz clarified Trump’s outrageous claim after the interview, stating, “On late-term abortions, former Virginia governor Ralph Northam did say that in cases of severe deformity or non-viable fetus, the mother and doctors would decide what to do once the baby was born.” He added that Northam later clarified through a spokesperson that he was not discussing killing babies but addressing extremely rare and tragic cases.
A spokesperson for Northam clarified his remarks, explaining he was referring to “tragic and extremely rare cases in which a woman with a nonviable pregnancy or severe fetal abnormalities went into labor.” Northam’s comments were clear when he mentioned, “When we talk about third trimester abortions … it’s done in cases where there may be severe deformities, there may be a fetus that is non-viable.”
Kurtz also noted, “A CDC survey says fewer than 1% of all abortions take place at or after seven months of pregnancy.”
On the topic of Russia, Trump speculated about President Vladimir Putin’s potential involvement in the death of political dissident Alexei Navalny. “I don’t know but perhaps. Possibly, I could say probably. I don’t know,” Trump said, adding, “[Navalny was] a young man, so statistically he’d be alive for a long time. If you go by the insurance numbers, he’d be alive for another 40 years. So something happened that was unusual.”
“You certainly can’t say for sure, but certainly that would look like something very bad happened,” Trump concluded.
Trump also persisted in his unfounded assertions that the election was “rigged.”
“You can cut this if you want, but the election was rigged,” he stated. “You know, Fox may want to cut that one out, but that’s OK… It was so rigged, it was so crazy, but we’re gonna do it again.”