- Donald Trump said that he was "not a student of Hitler" and hadn't read any of his works.
- Trump was defending his controversial comments about immigrants "poisoning the blood" of the country.
Former President Donald Trump said he was "not a student of Hitler," following backlash to his controversial comments that immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country."
Trump said that he never knew Adolf Hitler had used similar language to describe Jewish people and said he had never read Hitler's "Mein Kampf" manifesto.
"I know nothing about Hitler. I'm not a student of Hitler," Trump said in a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt.
Hitler and his Nazi party spoke about the purity of bloodlines
"I never read his works. They say that he said something about blood. He didn't say it the way I said it, either, by the way. It's a very different kind of a statement."
Hitler and his Nazi party often spoke about the purity of bloodlines to dehumanize Jewish people, saying their blood would make German blood impure.
"I never knew that Hitler said it, either, by the way. And I never read Mein Kampf. They said I read Mein Kampf. These are people that are disinformation horrible people that we're dealing with. I never read Mein Kampf," Trump said.
Trump's controversial comments, made while speaking in New Hampshire last week, were about immigrants entering the United States.
Explaining his comments, Trump said: "What I'm saying when I talk about people coming into our country is they are destroying our country. This country is, we have prisoners coming in. We have mental patients coming in by the thousands, really, by the millions."
When asked if he meant any racist sentiment, he responded: "Dear, no."
His statement sparked backlash, including from the Biden campaign, which said his words "parroted Adolf Hitler."
Trump previously used language about immigrants "poisoning the blood" in an interview earlier this year. In response, the Anti-Defamation League's CEO and national director, Jonathan Greenblatt, called his language "racist, xenophobic and despicable," Reuters reported.
Trump has been strong in his anti-immigrant rhetoric, and while president, implemented strict policies to crack down on it.