White House hopeful Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) on Sunday compared President Trump’s unprecedented visit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the hermit nation to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain meeting with Adolf Hitler.
“They talk about historic moments. This is historic, him going to North Korea is like Chamberlain going to talk to Hitler,” Ryan said on CNN’s “Reliable Sources.”
“I mean, this guy was lobbing missiles into the Sea of Japan just a few weeks ago and the president is going to talk to him? I mean, are you kidding me?” Ryan added of Kim.
{mosads}Trump made history Sunday by becoming the first sitting U.S. president to enter North Korea.
He and Kim then met with Kim for a surprise negotiation session that lasted almost an hour on the South Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone.
Trump has touted the meeting as a diplomatic success that will improve U.S.-North Korea ties. The president has met with Kim three times now in efforts to denuclearize the Korean peninsula.
In the lead up to World War II, Chamberlain traveled to Germany to meet with Hitler several times but was unable to prevent him from continuing to seize territory. Chamberlain has been criticized for his appeasement policy that ultimately only delayed the war.
Democrats have blasted the meeting between Trump and Kim, accusing Trump of cozying up to a dictator and throwing cold water on the importance of negotiations.
A spokesman for former Vice President Joe Biden hit Trump for “coddling” dictators, citing his chummy meetings with Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) tweeted that Trump “shouldn’t be squandering American influence on photo ops and exchanging love letters with a ruthless dictators.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) blasted the meeting as having “weakened the State Department.”
Several other candidates weighed in, with only one, entrepreneur Andrew Yang, praising the talks.
“Anything that improves the political climate on the Korean peninsula and engages North Korea on its nuclear program is a good thing,” Yang tweeted.