NBC News’ Heilemann: Trump Using ‘White Nationalist’ Language — ‘The Press Needs to Hold Him Accountable’

Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House,” NBC News national affairs analyst John Heilemann said voters should hold President Donald Trump “accountable” for using what Heilemann said was “the language of white nationalist.”

Referencing Trump’s tweet, Heilemann said, “Yesterday when he used the phrase ‘infestation,’ it called to mind—it was basically saying immigrants, people who come to this country are vermin. That’s what he was saying. It’s the language of white nationalist, splinter, hard right crazy town parties. And we have haven’t heard it in our politics in a long time. We’ve heard it in our politics in history, but not in a while. He’s going to go—he’s still going to use that language between now and November because he thinks it works with the part of his group, of his base.”

He added, “You can’t go around talking about people like they’re vermin, you can’t inflict this kind of policy on Americans and not pay a political price. We have a great chance to inflict one on him and his party in November—we, meaning the Democratic Party does. I’m not part of the Democratic Party, but people who object to this policy, which I think is a lot of people beyond the Democratic Party, have a chance to make the president and his party pay a price and they should. The press needs to hold him accountable and not let him slide away from this the next course of days and let this happen.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

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