Donald Trump on Tuesday morning dismissed his critics who say he’s invoking Adolf Hitler by asking people at his rallies to raise their hands and pledge to vote for him.
“I don’t know about the Hitler comparison, I hadn’t heard that, but it’s a terrible comparison,” Trump said on Good Morning America. “I’m not happy about that, certainly. I don’t want that comparison.”
Donald Trump after people compare him to Hitler: “I hadn’t heard that but it’s a terrible comparison.” https://t.co/sTjxL5bt9O
— Good Morning America (@GMA) March 8, 2016
Later on “Morning Joe,” Trump called it a “stretch” to compare him to Hitler, and said his rallies are all in good fun.
“Boy is that a stretch,” he said. “Wow, that’s amazing that it would even be brought up. of course not, of course not. That’s ridiculous.”
“I say, jokingly, raise your hand if you swear to endorse me and swear to go and vote for me, and the entire place practically, laughing and having a good time, raises their hand,” he added. “They’re raising their hand in the form of a vote, not in the form of a salute. That’s crazy.”
Trump on Monday morning held a rally in which he again asked people to raise their hands and pledge their support.
“Should we do the pledge, should we do the pledge?” Trump shouted in North Carolina. “Raise your hand, ‘I swear I’m going to vote for Donald Trump next week. I swear.’ … Oh wow just with the people here, I think we win, right?”
Later on in the show, “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough said the press was over-reaching by comparing the Trump rally to a Hitler rally, and said the press has routinely overreached in an effort to bring down Trump. Columnist Mike Barnicle argued that people routinely raise their hands to swear allegiance to the United States in naturalization ceremonies, and said a picture taken of those events would look a lot like pictures the press is showing of the Trump rally.
