Rep. Luis Gutierrez on Thursday blamed the Republican Party for waging a demagogic campaign that has renewed racial strife in America, and for bringing “Hitler salutes” back into the mainstream.
“[O]ut on the campaign trail, on immigration, we get lots of demagoguery from the majority,” the Illinois Democrat charged on the House floor. “The debate has sunk to a level where people are actually throwing punches, and worse.”
Gutierrez implied that Republicans are to blame for attacks on minorities over the last few weeks.
“We have ‘Go Back to Africa’ and Hitler salutes, and all of this is becoming more and more what we expect, the reality we see in 2016,” he said.
Gutierrez didn’t refer to Donald Trump specifically, but many Democrats have said Trump’s request that people pledge to support him at rallies has the look of a rally from Nazi Germany. Others have downplayed that comparison, however, and Trump himself has said he was simply asking people to raise their hands in a pledge to vote.
Other Democrats openly blamed Trump for making race a problem in his campaign. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., for example, said candidates like Trump are “trying to win votes by promising that they will do everything in their power to break up families.”
Gutierrez spoke in a debate over a Republican resolution allowing the House to file a brief with the Supreme Court, in the case over whether President Obama’s executive actions on immigration were constitutional. The resolution was approved in a mostly party-line vote.
Gutierrez, the most vocal supporter of Obama’s actions, said Republicans should just admit that they want to eliminate those actions and deport millions of people.
“Why don’t you just say it clearly?” he asked. “This is your, I want to deport 4 to 5 million people.”
“Be men and women of integrity and of your word and say: I want four to five million unprotected, and amend this to say, ‘this is a mass deportation for 4 to 5 million people,'” he added.
