O'Rourke compares Trump immigration comments to Nazi Germany

Former Rep. Beto O’RourkeBeto O’RourkeBiden will help close out Texas Democrats’ virtual convention: report O’Rourke on Texas reopening: ‘Dangerous, dumb and weak’ Parties gear up for battle over Texas state House MORE (D-Texas) compared rhetoric used by President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE to describe immigrants to language from Nazi Germany, according to videos shared on social media on Friday. 

“I compared the rhetoric that the president has employed to rhetoric that you might’ve heard during the Third Reich,” said O’Rourke, who’s running for president in 2020.

“Calling human beings an ‘infestation’ is something that we might have expected to hear in Nazi Germany,” he added. “Describing immigrants who have a track record of committing violent crimes at a lower rate than native-born Americans as rapists and criminals, seeking to ban all Muslims, all people of one religion, what other country on the face of the planet does that kind of thing?”   

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“You draw your own conclusions,” he continued. “But this is not something I expected to hear the president of the United States of America ever say.”

WATCH: Beto O’Rourke compares President Trump’s rhetoric and actions on immigration to rhetoric and actions he would expect to have heard during Nazi Germany’s Third Reich. pic.twitter.com/FhTv74eqCF

— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 5, 2019

O’Rourke made the comments Thursday at a town hall in Iowa, according to The Washington Post, which reported that the presidential contender also warned about the need to “call out racism.”

“If we don’t call out racism, certainly at the highest levels of power, in this position of trust that the president enjoys, then we are going to continue to get its consequences,” O’Rourke said, according to the Post. “Silence is complicity in what this administration is doing, so let’s call it out. Let’s also define a better future for this country, and that’s what I’ve been trying to do in this campaign.”

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Trump has made a number of controversial comments about immigrants, including tweeting in June that immigrants were coming to “infest our country.”

He has also referred to MS-13 gang members, a group he has often pointed to as evidence for immigrant criminality, as “animals.”

The White House did not immediately reply to a request for comment from The Hill.