Trump repeats anti-immigrant ‘poisoning the blood’ remarks at rally: Latest

In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham repeatedly dismissed concerns about Trump’s ongoing claims that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of the country,” statements that invoke similar passages from Mein Kampf and white supremacist manifestos.

Asked about Trump’s language and criticism from the Biden campaign, Graham pivoted to the US-Mexico border.

“I’m worried about an outcome. He is right – he had the border secured … To the Biden administration, you’re talking about Donald Trump’s language as you saw on the sidelines and allowed the country to be invaded,” Graham said.

Asked whether he is “comfortable” with Trump using that rhetoric, Graham said: “We’re talking about language. I could [sic] care less what language people use as long as we get it right.”

“I have no animosity toward people trying to come to our country … I understand why people want to come to America, but we have chaos and need to create order,” he added. “If you think you’re gonna win the debate on illegal immigration by picking a line in a speech – most Americans understand the game has to change.”

He also was asked whether Trump’s rhetoric and whether it’s the GOP’s official platform that immigrants from Africa, Asia and South America are “poisoning” the US, as Trump said.

The top strategist for the embattled super PAC backing Ron DeSantis resigned Saturday night in the latest sign of trouble for the GOP hopeful less than one month before voting begins with Iowa’s kickoff caucuses.

Jeff Roe, the top adviser to Never Back Down, is the latest senior staffer to exit Never Back Down, which has been the largest outside group supporting DeSantis’ run for the White House.

He announced his exit hours after The Washington Post published a story focused on internal disputes and suspicions between Never Back Down, the campaign, and other DeSantis allies that included accusations of “mismanagement and conduct issues, including numerous unauthorized leaks containing false information.”

Trump and his campaign were thrilled with the news, calling it “game over” for the Florida governor.

Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor and one of Trump’s rivals for the Republican nomination for president, criticised Trump for his “dog whistle” anti-immigrant attacks in his latest speech in New Hampshire, where the former president revived his Mein Kampf-invoking claim that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the country.

“He’s disgusting. What he’s doing is dog-whistling to Americans who feel absolutely under stress and strain from the economy [and] blaming it on people from areas who don’t look like us,” he told CNN on Sunday.

“He’s becoming crazier,” he said. “And now he’s citing Vladimir Putin as a character witness … It’s time to send Donald Trump back to Mar-a-Lago permanently.”

Trump continues to show up at headlining sport events during his campaign, appearances that rack up thousands of views across social media and shift the spotlight from the event itself to his presence.

After his New Hampshire rally, he traveled to Las Vegas for UFC 296 to sit ringside at the T-Mobile Arena to support Colby Covington.

Trump has used the state slogan for New Hampshire on his own campaign signage, with supporters holding up signs reading “live free or die” at his latest rally.

That “live free or die” motto asserts American independence. Trump’s use implies those are the stakes of the 2024 election.

Others have also noted the irony.

His campaigning in the state comes weeks before its first-in-the-nation Republican primary election.

He still leads among GOP candidates, but Nikki Haley has consolidated much of the non-Trump vote and has emerged as a top rival, according to polling from CBS News. The state’s popular Republican Governor Chris Sununu also has endorsed her.

Sunday’s poll shows support for Trump in the state is at 44 per cent, while Haley inches forward with 29 per cent.

After his appearance at a campaign rally in New Hampshire, Trump shared an all-caps post on his Truth Social to state that “illegal immigration is poisoning the blood of our nation,” echoing statements he made on stage.

He claimed – once again without evidence, of which there is none to defend his inflammatory statements – that “they’re coming from prisons, from mental institutions” and into the US.

Trump’s latest remarks in New Hampshire have drawn warnings about his increasingly violent, autocratic rhetoric on the campaign trail.

Jennifer Mercieca, an historian of American political rhetoric and professor at Texas A&M University who wrote 2020’s Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump, says that the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president “seesAmerican democracy as a sham and he wants to convince his followers to see it that way too.”

“Putin hates western values like democracy and the rule of law, so does Trump,” she told The Washington Post.

Republicans have largely shrugged off his statements. Here’s how we got here:

Following Donald Trump’s widely condemned statements in New Hampshire on Saturday, when he repeated his inflammatory statement that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of the country,” Joe Biden’s presidential campaign said his likely 2024 rival was “channeling his role models.”

“Tonight Donald Trump channeled his role models as he parroted Adolf Hitler, praised Kim Jong Un, and quoted Vladimir Putin while running for president on a promise to rule as a dictator and threaten American democracy,” spokesperson Ammar Moussa said.

“He is betting he can win this election by scaring and dividing this country,” he added. “He’s wrong. In 2020, Americans chose President Biden’s vision of hope and unity over Trump’s vision of fear and division – and they’ll do the same next November.”

Final witness testimony closed a key chapter in a lawsuit that strikes at the heart of the former president’s persona as a successful businessman, a narrative that launched his presidential campaign and is now at the centre of a blockbuster lawsuit alleging a decade of fraud.

But the trial isn’t over just yet.

Melania Trump delivered remarks at a naturalisation ceremony at the National Archives in Washington DC on Friday, a rare – and ironic – public speaking appearance from the former first lady, whose husband is accused of withholding government documents from the very same agency.

Her appearance comes in the middle of a federal criminal case targeting Donald Trump and his allegedly illegal retention of Archives documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate, where Ms Trump also lives.

The former president has also repeatedly attacked the National Archives and baselessly accused the archivists and civil servants of corruption and conspiracies against him following a protracted effort to get him to return documents in his possession.

So what was Melania doing there?