With all due respect to my friend @realJeffreyLord – inappropriate Nazi comparisons = time in the penalty box on our show. @paynedc pic.twitter.com/QIMibwZxab
— John Bachman (@JohnB_Newsmax) April 26, 2018
Jeffrey Lord, an advocate of President Trump who was fired from CNN last year, was rebuked Thursday by a Newsmax anchor after he equated refugees entering the U.S. to members of the Nazi party.
“We welcome anybody to come to America. There is a legal process to do it,” Lord said during an appearance on the conservative network. “And in the case of the travel ban, you need to be careful taking people from countries that have terrorism problems. That just seems like safety and security 101.”
{mosads}“If this were, say, 1938, you would want to be raising more than an eyebrow if this country was suddenly being flooded with members of the Nazi Party from Germany,” he continued.
Anchor John Bachman quickly shot down Lord’s argument.
“You lose the argument, Jeffrey, when you equate it to Nazis,” Bachman said.
Fellow guest and Democratic strategist Joel Payne also ripped Lord’s analogy, calling it “unfair.”
Bachman quickly ended the segment and shifted to another topic.
He later tweeted out a clip of the segment.
Lord defended his comments in a statement to The Hill, saying that immigrants from countries that “have a serious terrorism problem should be on a travel ban list to provide for the safety of the American people.” He said he was comparing that argument to a hypothetical scenario from 1938, if “there was a demand for Germans with ties to the Nazi party to be allowed into the country.”
He added he is not opposed to legal immigration or the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
“Apparently, there are those who believe in the politically correct view that radical Islam, which mass-murdered 3,000 Americans on 9/11 and has terrorized, among others in the U.S., a San Bernardino Christmas party — is not equivalent to the murderous Nazis. I’m sorry, but I disagree,” Lord said.
Lord was fired from CNN last year after he tweeted “Seig Heil” at a liberal activist.
Trump defended Lord at a campaign rally last year after his firing.
“Poor Jeffrey,” Trump said at the August rally. “I guess he was getting a little bit fed up and was probably fighting back too hard and they said, ‘We gotta get out of here.’”
—Updated at 4:37 p.m. Joe Concha contributed.