Former First Lady Melania Trump broke her silence on critics who have compared her husband, former President Donald Trump, to Adolf Hitler.
“It’s terrible,” she said during an appearance on FOX News’ morning news show FOX & Friends. “He’s not Hitler. All of his supporters, they’re standing behind him because they want to see the country successful — and we see what kind of support he has.”
“He loves his country and he wants to make it successful… for all of the people. You know, he loves people and he wants to make this country great again,” she added.
The former first lady's response came days after Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz compared Trump's Madison Square Garden rally to a pro-Nazi event held at the arena 85 years prior.
“Donald Trump’s got this big rally going at Madison Square Garden,” Walz said during a campaign appearance in Henderson, Nevada, last week via the New York Post. “There’s a direct parallel to a big rally that happened in the 1930s at Madison Square Garden.”
MSNBC also faced backlash after splicing clips of the 1939 Nazi rally into its coverage of Trump's sold-out event.
“But that jamboree happening right now, you see it there on your screen in that place is particularly chilling because in 1939, more than 20,000 supporters of a different fascist leader, Adolf Hitler, packed the Garden for a so-called pro-America rally,” the anchor said as footage of Trump's rally rolled into footage of the Nazi rally.
Many conservatives called the comparison "shameful," claiming the crowd at the Trump rally was diverse.
“Yesterday’s Trump rally was filled with Americans from every walk of life including orthodox, conservative, reform, and secular Jews. I saw a woman in a burka. It wasn’t an anything like a Nazi rally. Shame on MSNBC,” X user @amuse wrote, accusing the network of "incitement."
Others acknowledged that Jerry Wartski, a Holocaust survivor, was among the more than 20,000 people in attendance. Trump's rally featured several notable supporters, which also yielded controversy, with his childhood friend, David Rem, called Vice President Kamala Harris "the anti-Christ," and comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who made several controversial jokes directed at Latinos and called Puerto Rico "literally a floating island of garbage."
Trump and Harris are reportedly deadlocked at 48% in the final New York Times/Siena College poll released on Friday (October 25). Harris reportedly lost her edge over Trump in recent weeks, having previously held a 49% to 46% advantage in a previous New York Times/Siena College poll published earlier in October.
"Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump remain effectively tied even after three of the most tumultuous months in recent American political history. A high-profile debate, two attempts on Mr. Trump’s life, dozens of rallies across seven battlefield states and hundreds of millions spent on advertisements have seemingly done little to change the trajectory of the race," New York Times reporters Adam Nagourney and Ruth Igielnik wrote of the final poll results.
Harris and Trump were also reported to be deadlocked in the seven swing states, splitting battleground states and polling within the margin of error, according to a Washington Post-Schar School poll released on Monday (October 21). Trump currently leads in Arizona (49% to 46%) and North Carolina (50% to 47%); Harris leads in Georgia (51% to 47%), Michigan (49% to 47%), Pennsylvania (49% to 47%) and Wisconsin (50% to 47%); and both candidates are tied in Nevada at 48% among likely voters.
Harris is also reported to lead in Georgia (50% to 44%), Nevada (47% to 44%), Pennsylvania (49% to 46%) and Wisconsin (50% to 46%), while Trump has the advantage in Arizona (50% to 44%), Michigan (47% to 46%) and North Carolina (49% to 45) among registered voters. The margin of error for the swing state poll results ranged from plus-or-minus 3.9 to 5 percentage points.
Harris is also reported to have a 49% to 48% edge over Trump nationally, which has a margin of error of 1.7 percentage points.
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