Donald Trump's current trajectory is similar to Adolf Hitler's in the 1930s Germany.
That's the bold claim coming from Democratic congressman James Clyburn (D-S.C.).
"We remember from our studies what happened in the 1930s in Germany," Clyburn said Wednesday. "I told a business group down in Hilton Head several weeks before the election that what I saw coming was a replay of what we saw happen in Nazi Germany."
"The fact of the matter is, Hitler was elected chancellor of Germany," the South Carolina congressman continued. "He didn’t become a dictator until later when people began to be influenced by his foolishness. We just elected a president and he’s got a lot of foolishness going on and I’m afraid that too many people are being influenced by that foolishness."
Clyburn called on Americans to act before letting Trump complete this transformation into a Hitler-esque dictator.
"So what we have to do now is step up and say we are not going to allow any one person to misuse an election and to abuse the process and turn this country back on its head. We are going to move forward,” he said during an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
Here's a transcript of the exchange:
BLITZER: “Well, let me ask you, congressman, because you have been a leader in the Civil Rights movement in our country for a long time, going way, way back. Give us a little sense of history right now when you saw those marchers with torches screaming out racist, anti-Semitic slurs, and you heard them chanting ‘Jews will not replace us,’ then they screamed out ‘You will not replace us,’ referring to African-Americans. When they uttered the slogan, ‘Blood and soil, blood and soil,’ a clear statement that we heard Nazis speak out in the ‘30s in the Germany. What was your reaction as someone who has worked so hard in this area of civil rights all of these years?”
CLYBURN: “You know, I’ve been saying for a long time, our members in Congressional Black Caucus will tell you, I’ve been saying to them that we are approaching the place where we have been before. I was around in the ‘60s, as you said, and I remember some of those slogans and I remember what some of the political leaders had to say. That was a different day and a different time. We remember from our studies what happened in the 1930s in Germany. I told a business group down in Hilton Head several weeks before the election that what I saw coming was a replay of what we saw happen in Nazi Germany. The fact of the matter is, Hitler was elected chancellor of Germany. He didn’t become a dictator until later when people began to be influenced by his foolishness. We just elected a president and he’s got a lot of foolishness going on and I’m afraid that too many people are being influenced by that foolishness. So what we have to do now is step up and say we are not going to allow any one person to misuse an election and to abuse the process and turn this country back on its head. We are going to move forward”