Democrat compares Trump presidency to Hitler during Holocaust: 'Almost like he's following a book'

Michigan Democratic Rep. Brenda Lawrence compared President Donald Trump's presidency to Adolf Hitler's rule during the Holocaust at a Jewish Council for Public Affairs discussion on Black-Jewish relations in the United States.

Lawrence, a co-founder of the Congressional Black-Jewish Caucus, described her visit to a museum in Germany that keeps all the archives from the Holocaust and how it reminded her of the U.S. under Trump.

"Something that was so powerful for me was what are the tools that Hitler used to convince an entire country to follow his hatred and his rhetoric?" Lawrence said on Tuesday during the virtual discussion on The Role of the Congressional Caucus on Black-Jewish Relations During Times Like These.

"He attacked the media," Lawrence continued. "He told everybody the media was fake, it was not real, because for you to be a dictator, the people cannot trust anything but what you're saying. In addition to that, he divided people; he took one part of the population and made them better, and everyone else were least, and they were wrong, and they deserved to be killed. They deserved to be stripped of their wealth. They deserved to be treated that way.” 

"When you watch them — the photos ... of normal people just celebrating this hatred that he was spreading — it just made chills go up and down my spine like, 'What is happening in America?' It's almost like he's following a book. And I'm sorry if you feel I'm an extremist, but it is not good, the direction we're going in this country. It has nothing to do with him being a Republican. It's his policies. It's his morals, his values. But we are going to keep fighting."

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs and the Republican Jewish Coalition were not available for comment on Lawrence's remarks before publication.