White House and Biden campaign aides on Monday slammed former President Trump over his comments from the weekend in which he compared his political enemies to “vermin” who pose a threat to the United States.
“We do not comment on the 2024 presidential election. The nation just observed Veterans Day, recognizing the sacred memory of every American who risked their lives to defend our freedom. Veterans who are absolutely not ‘suckers’ or ‘losers;” but who, as President Biden has said, deserve our greatest respect,” deputy White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement provided first to The Hill.
“Using terms like that about dissent would be unrecognizable to our founders, but horrifyingly recognizable to American veterans who put on their country’s uniform in the 1940s,” Bates added. “President Biden believes in his oath to our Constitution, and in American democracy. He works to protect both every day.”
Biden’s reelection campaign lashed out at the comments as well, comparing Trump’s rhetoric to dictators like Hitler and Mussolini.
“Trump doesn’t care about our troops or what they fought for — he thinks they’re ‘losers’ for making the ultimate sacrifice defending our country from forces opposed to democracy and its ideals. Donald Trump thinks he can win by dividing our country. He’s wrong, and he’ll find out just how wrong next November,” campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa said in a statement.
The former president on Saturday wrote on Truth Social that he pledged in honor of Veterans Day to “root out the Communists, Marxists, Fascists, and Radical Left Thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our Country, lie, steal, and cheat on Elections, and will do anything possible, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America, and the American Dream.”
Trump made similar comments at a rally with supporters in New Hampshire.
The comments have drawn criticism from historians, who likened them to the rhetoric used by dictators in the 1940s, as well as from some Democrats and Republicans.
When pressed Sunday over Trump’s post, Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Ronna McDaniel dodged reporters’ questions, saying she would not comment on candidates and their messaging.
“When @GOPChairwoman refuses to condemn the GOP’s leading candidate for using the same Nazi propaganda that mobilized 1930s-40s Germany to evil, it’s fair to assume she’s collaborating,” former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “History will judge Ronna McDaniel and every Republican who is appeasing this dangerous man.”