The White House condemned Donald Trump for using what it described as fascist-like rhetoric after the former president said immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country”.
It also accused Trump of “praising dictators” when he quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin at a rally on Saturday in New Hampshire, which next month will vote on a Republican candidate to face Democrat Joe Biden in the 2024 election.
“Echoing the grotesque rhetoric of fascists and violent white supremacists and threatening to oppress those who disagree with the government are dangerous attacks on the dignity and rights of all Americans, on our democracy, and on public safety,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates said on Sunday.
“It’s the opposite of everything we stand for as Americans,” he said in a statement.
Immigration promises to be one of the most divisive issues heading into next November’s US presidential election.
Hard-right populist Trump previously used the same inflammatory language about migrants in comments to a conservative news site in October, but Saturday was the first time he has used it at a political rally.
What are Trump’s plans if he returns to the White House?
What are Trump’s plans if he returns to the White House?
“When they let, I think the real number is 15, 16 million people, into our country, when they do that, we got a lot of work to do. They’re poisoning the blood of our country,” Trump told the rally in Durham, New Hampshire, without giving evidence for the numbers.
Trump then quoted Putin, the Russian leader whom he has previously praised despite Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, to support his claims that multiple criminal indictments against him are political persecution.
“Even Vladimir Putin … says that Biden’s – and this is a quote – politically motivated persecution of his political rival is very good for Russia, because it shows the rottenness of the American political system,” said Trump.
Trump, the overwhelming favourite to lead the Republicans into the election, also came under fire from one of his rivals in the race for the party’s nomination.
“He’s becoming crazier,” former New Jersey governor Chris Christie told CNN’s State of the Union. “We can’t beat Joe Biden with someone who talks that way about immigrants to this country.”
But Trump ally Senator Lindsey Graham dismissed the furore, saying “I could care less what language people use as long as we get it (immigration) right”.
Biden, 81, has recently stepped up direct attacks painting 77-year-old Trump as a threat to democracy as he starts to trail the tycoon in the polls with less than a year to the election.
“As president Biden has always said, our leaders have a responsibility to bring the country together around our shared values – not tear Americans apart with hate and cruelty, or threaten the core freedoms that our nation was founded to protect,” Bates said.
Additional reporting by Associated Press