Democratic presidential candidate Robert “Beto” Francis O’Rourke claimed President Trump’s campaign event in North Carolina last week "was almost an impromptu Nuremberg rally."
“President Trump is a racist. What we saw in North Carolina last week was almost an impromptu Nuremberg rally, inciting hatred, and ultimately, I think, implicit in that is violence against people based on the color of their skin, based on their religion, based on their difference from the majority of Americans,” the former Texas congressman told ABC News, referring to the crowd chanting “send her back” in reference to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).
"Yes, President Trump is a racist," 2020 candidate Beto O'Rourke tells @ABC News.
— ABC News (@ABC) July 22, 2019
"What we saw in North Carolina last week was almost an impromptu Nuremberg rally." https://t.co/rzC4HnxhRP pic.twitter.com/LiqB2XVitO
"And it is in keeping the president who describes Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals, who describes asylum seekers as animals or an infestation, who says that Klansmen are 'very fine people.' It's very clear the path that he is taking us on," he added.
O’Rourke, who's polling in the low single digits, said there will be consequences for those who don’t stand up to Trump.
“Silence, especially from members of Congress, who hold a position of public trust and power, silence is complicity in what the president is doing, and there will be an accounting. There will be a reckoning. There will be justice for this,” he said.
While President Trump did not say anything while the chants broke out, he later said he “disagreed” with them and was “very unhappy” about it, noting that he would try to put an end to that type of chant in the future.