In their quest to destroy a formidable White House contender, the left has adhered to a straightforward formula: perpetually manufacture politically motivated legal charges, maintain ceaseless biased media coverage, and, perhaps most notably, employ comparisons between the opposition and Adolf Hitler, no matter how far of a reach they might be.
On Veteran’s Day, while President Joe Biden seized the moment as a campaign opportunity to highlight his “achievements,” former President Donald Trump took to social media to address what he called the biggest threat to America. Trump pledged to uncover all the evil within the nation, writing, “In honor of our great Veterans on Veteran’s Day, we pledge to you that we will root out the Communists, Marxists, Fascists, and Radical Left Thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our Country.”
It wasn’t being called Fascists, Marxists, Communists, or even radical left thugs that drew the attention of Trump’s critics. After all, liberals proudly embrace who they are.
Instead, the left swiftly seized on Trump’s use of the term “vermin” to describe far-left elements, drawing a puzzling parallel to Hitler and Mussolini.
Democrats, meanwhile, champion censorship, and one-rule authoritarianism and have recently grappled with an alarming display of antisemitism that caught the nation off guard. But it’s the word “vermin” that caused distress and once again prompted parallels between Trump and Hitler.
As Democrats decry Trump’s language, it’s worth noting their history of charged rhetoric. Hillary Clinton infamously labeled a portion of Trump’s supporters as fitting into a “basket of deplorables,” and throughout her repeated election denials, she continuously called Trump an “illegitimate president.” This phrase was echoed throughout the left in Congress and the liberal media, a rallying cry for Democrats throughout his presidency.
Former President Barack Obama’s assertion that conservatives would “cling to guns or religion” and multiple instances of Democrats advocating violence against political opponents have further underscored their use of potent, divisive language. And Biden’s gaffes, including labeling millions of people as dangerous Mega Maga Republicans, are too numerous to count.
Despite this, Trump’s description of communists as “vermin” has seemingly crossed a line visible only to Democrats.
Ammar Moussa, a spokesperson for Biden’s campaign, expressed concerns over Trump’s language, paralleling it to the autocratic rhetoric used by Hitler and Mussolini. White House spokesperson Andrew Bates echoed this sentiment, emphasizing that Trump’s language would be unrecognizable to the founders but disturbingly familiar to 1940s veterans. Jim Messina, who managed President Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, drew comparisons to an “authoritarian propaganda playbook” employed by dictators.
In response, the Trump campaign dismissed such comparisons as the product of “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” labeling those who made such claims as “snowflakes grasping for anything.”
Critics pointed out that Trump had previously admired Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and commended Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom Biden labeled a dictator but later apologized for his comments.
However, instances of cozy relationships between prominent Democrats and controversial figures abound. Bill Clinton’s support for Russian leader Boris Yeltsin after the fall of the Soviet Union, Barack Obama’s decades-long association with and refusal to denounce “chickens coming home to roost” terrorism supporter Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and Bernie Sanders’ admiration for Cuba, the Soviet Union, and Nicaragua, suggest a broader history of questionable affiliations within the Democratic party.
For Democrats, it’s all about the reach, no matter how far that reach may be, to condemn Trump and advance a false narrative. The left has been sounding the alarm on what they think will be Trump’s Revenge Tour should he be reelected. And to them, the vermin comment is another example of the devastation and destruction he will bring to the United States should he retake the White House.
Trump was further criticized for noting that “the threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous, and grave than the threat from within.” However, that sentiment is fundamental to the Democrats’ arguments that a Trump presidency would be the downfall of democracy, Catholic churches hold sinister sleeper cells of terrorism, and parents are the gravest threat Americans currently face.
You can be forgiven for not understanding the parallel between the word “vermin” and dictators. To most Americans, vermin are sneaky pests that live in the shadows and destroy everything they touch. To historians wildly thumbing through books to find new ways to discredit Trump, referring to the far left as “vermin” is a call to war.
Historian John Meacham warned that Trump’s “vermin” comment was the gateway to committing the “most ghastly kinds of crimes.” But most Americans understand that no “deeper meaning” is at play here. Sometimes, a rat is just a rat.