Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks (N.Y.) said Tuesday that President Donald Trump's remarks that he's a "nationalist" are reminiscent of the "kinds of words that came from people like Hitler."
Trump proclaimed himself a "nationalist" at a rally for Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) on Monday, saying it's an "old-fashioned" word. Trump slammed "globalists" while identifying himself with a term he's often painted as by critics.
CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked Meeks for his response.
"It reminds me of the kinds of words that came from people like Hitler, who thought that in Germany he was a nationalist, and the kinds of people that this president seems to like, and those who are repressive dictators, those are the individuals that generally use that kind of phrase and those kinds of words," Meeks said.
Blitzer asked Meeks to expand on making a "controversial" comparison between Trump and Adolf Hitler, the ruthless Nazi dictator who presided over the Holocaust.
"What I'm saying is that using the word of nationalism and a nationalist, meaning that when you looked into Hitler, he was talking about Germany for the Germans and that's it, and anyone else was against them. And so it seems as though this president is saying that it is only about Americans, and Americans above anything and everyone else. And that is a dangerous precedent," Meeks said. "That's what I'm saying. You know, you go to any dictator that advocates that kind of theory, you see that they actually impose—or poses a threat to everybody within our society and without the society."
Blitzer asked Meeks whether he saw parallels between Trump's statements and what Hitler did in Germany in the 1930s.
Meeks responded Hitler and other authoritarians used similar kinds of language in "how they built themselves up to be the dictators that they were."
"I'm saying that language that the president is utilizing is a very dangerous language that we must be very cautious about," he said.