September 15, 2016 | No Comments
Donald Trump Jr. said Wednesday that the media protected the Democratic National Committee as it sought to force Sen. Bernie Sanders from the primary race earlier and added that “if Republicans were doing that, they’d be warming up the gas chamber right now.”
Trump’s comments came during an appearance on a Philadelphia talk radio station, where he said the media has also gone out of its way to protect Hillary Clinton throughout the length of her presidential run.
“The media has been her number one surrogate in this. Without the media, this wouldn’t even be a contest, but the media has built her up,” Trump said on WPHT radio. “They’ve let her slide on every indiscrepancy, on every lie, on every DNC game trying to get Bernie Sanders out of this thing. If Republicans were doing that, they’d be warming up the gas chamber right now.”
Conservative independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin seized on the comment from Trump, writing on Twitter that it was “an unsurprising Nazi reference from the ‘alt-right’ movement’s presidential campaign. This is the real Trump.” Clinton then joined in, retweeting McMullin’s message from her own account.
The National Jewish Democratic Council also weighed in with a statement, arguing that Trump’s comments were unsurprising given his campaign’s track record but nonetheless “have no place in a presidential campaign.”
“Donald Trump Jr.’s reference to gas chambers is outrageous. With its allusions to the Holocaust, remarks such as these have no place in a presidential campaign,” the NJDC’s statement read. “Yet, it is not surprising that the Republican nominee’s son would use such language, given the pattern of frequent dog-whistling to anti-Semites and that both Trump the elder and Trump the younger previously have retweeted postings from known anti-Semites. Both father and son should apologize immediately for this completely inappropriate and offensive reference.”
Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a question about what Trump Jr. meant by his statement.