TOI correspondent from Washington: MAGA Supremo Donald Trump claimed on Monday that he was the “opposite of a Nazi” as the aftermath of a vile and toxic rally he headlined at Madison Square Garden on Sunday continued to rock the US political arena.
“The latest line from Kamala and her campaign is that anyone who doesn’t vote for her is a Nazi,” Trump said at a typically raucous rally in Atlanta, fabricating an attribution to his opponent. “I am not a Nazi. “I’m the opposite of a Nazi,” he added, accusing Harris of being a “fascist,” as some of his former employees called him.
Trump and some of his allies were visibly shaken by Sunday’s shock and disgust MSG Rally This is being sparked across the political spectrum, with some speakers using dirty, vitriolic language to denigrate Kamala Harris and minorities. Many commentators pointed to the use of extremist symbols, phrases and language to argue that the gathering was reminiscent of a neo-Nazi rally.
Political analysts also noted the rally’s use of the song Dixie, seen by many as a Confederate anthem celebrating slavery and secession but valued by some conservatives as an ode to Southern pride. The song is banned in many institutions because it evokes a racist America that tolerated slavery.
While the Trump campaign deplored a comedian’s crass joke that called Puerto Rico “a floating island of trash,” it notably did not comment on other offensive remarks about Latinos, Black Americans, Jews and Muslims, as well as crude and vulgar innuendos Kamala Harris.
“These Latinos love having babies too… There’s no backing out. They don’t do that. They’re coming in, just like they did in our country,” comedian Peter Hinchcliffe said at the rally in a “joke” consistent with Trump’s accusation that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
While there has been much commentary about which demographics — women, blacks, Muslim Americans, Jewish Americans, Indian-Americans, etc. — could sway the election one way or another, the immediate attention now is on Latinos, particularly Puerto Ricans, who are educating an influential voting bloc in many states.
Fortunately for the Trump campaign, nearly 50 million Americans — about 30 percent of expected turnout — have already voted in the primary election. But the fiasco still leaves it vulnerable to a so-called “October surprise” that could mark a setback or reversal in the presidential campaign.
The Harris campaign and its liberal and moderate supporters are furiously pushing the issue as both sides release polls and cherry-pick polls that show them ahead despite bracing for an election deadlock and legal challenges on March 5-6. Prepare for November. Many political insiders fear that November 6th could be the new January 6th, as Trump stormtroopers laid siege to the US Capitol to protest a trial that formalized a Biden victory in the 2020 election.
To provide a contrast to that event, Kamala Harris is hosting a rally Tuesday evening at the Ellipse, which is diametrically opposed to the Capitol and where Trump’s provocative speech on January 6 unleashed his MAGA mob on the seat of the U.S. Legislature. Harris aides say she will clearly lay out her vision for the future, warning that a second Trump presidency would be more dangerous than the first because he would be “more unhinged and uncontrolled.”