Beto gave a speech today to what looks like a local gathering of avocado toast aficionados. It was quite the overflow crowd as you’ll see in the video. Amazingly enough, he did manage to not climb on top of anything this time, although he did compare Donald Trump to Hitler, because why not?

Beto O’Rourke compares President Donald Trump to the Third Reich pic.twitter.com/6pgeMwVTJW

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) April 4, 2019

Here’s a transcript, picking up at the relevant portion (about 30 seconds into the clip).

“The 3rd grade girl, who was handing us the hand drawn valentines, who happens to Mexican American says why does the President not like me. And I thought, what is that doing to her head and her conception of herself and what she’s able to contribute to this country?

When the President of the US has called Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals, he then went on to call asylum seekers animals and an infestation…Now, we would not be surprised if in the Third Reich, other human beings were described as an infestation, as a cockroach or a pest you want to kill…But to do that in 2017 or 18 in the United States of America doesn’t make sense.”

There are so many issues with what he says here.

To start, if you are ever thinking “hey, I’m gonna compare a fellow American to Hitler because of a political disagreement,” just don’t. It’s garbage politics that insults the pain and suffering of those who actually lived under the Third Reich. Nothing Trump has done can even begin to compare to Germany under Hitler. Such comparisons are nonsensical and weak minded.

Perhaps even dumber, Beto is also lying here about what Trump said. Never, not once, has Trump called immigrants animals. He was specifically talking about MS-13 in those comments. It’s not debatable. Nancy Pelosi tried to peddle that lie at the time and it’s no more correct today than it was last year. Given that, does Beto not believe murderous gang members are animals? Maybe he should share his opinion on that since he wants to decriminalize illegal immigration, the pathway for many of said gang members to enter the country.

On the topic of Trump’s 2015 comments calling “Mexican immigrants rapists and criminal,” this has always been one of the more ridiculous talking points to emanate from that time period. Trump was simply pointing out, however clumsily, that our porous border results in Mexico importing criminals (among other nationalisties) into the United States. That’s not even arguable, whether you are talking the drug trade, MS-13, or just individuals who commit crimes. He never said all Mexicans are rapists and criminals and obviously not all illegal immigrants are going around raping people.

Beto O’Rourke tries too hard and he just comes across as fake. It sounds like he sat in front of the mirror for two hours and practiced this “story.” The details of it sound made up anyway. A 3rd grader came up to him and asked why the President doesn’t like her? Come on, the chances that actually happened are somewhere between unlikely and noway.

With the 2020 field becoming so overcrowded, all the candidates are all trying to one up each other in insane policy positions and statements. So you end up with Beto O’Rourke comparing the President to Hitler and lying about his past comments. I expect things to devolve further from here. In the end, I think it’s going to alienate a lot of people in the middle who just want a good economy and to otherwise be left alone.

I don't care if you are on the left or the right. If you find yourself compelled to go, "these were just like Hitler's ideas!" stop yourself. Just stop. Hitler borrowed from totalitarian ideas across the spectrum. Mein Kampf is like the supergroup Asia but of repression. https://t.co/zt88hWsjOS

— Emily Zanotti (@emzanotti) April 4, 2019