It was a big news story in mid-November when Donald Trump at a rally used the word "vermin": "We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country," Trump told a New Hampshire crowd.
That sent the mainstream media, and President Joe Biden, into overdrive. NPR published a piece called, "Why Trump's authoritarian language about 'vermin' matters." Trump's "vermin" comment echoes Nazi Germany, Axios reported Biden as saying. "Trump's rhetoric now bounces around from confusion to rodent-like terms once used by fascist leaders Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini," wrote USA Today.
Marianne LeVine wrote a piece for the Washington Post entitled, "Trump calls political enemies ‘vermin,’ echoing dictators Hitler, Mussolini."
“The language is the language that dictators use to instill fear,” said Timothy Naftali, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. “When you dehumanize an opponent, you strip them of their constitutional rights to participate securely in a democracy because you’re saying they’re not human. That’s what dictators do.”
Matt Orfalea has done a deep dig into the Washington Post and its own use of the words "rats" and "vermin," and there's quite a long trail.
WaPo repeatedly called Trump & Republicans "Rats" & "Vermin". Now they won't stop comparing Trump to Hitler for using the same dehumanizing language.
— Matt Orfalea (@0rf) December 7, 2023
🧵/1 pic.twitter.com/oajUhEP8DC
WaPo argues that “vermin” is a term used by “authoritarians” to “dehumanize” and “encourage followers to engage in violence”. That’s interesting, because, over the last several years, WaPo itself repeatedly called Trump and Republicans “rats” and “vermin”. /2 pic.twitter.com/S8b2tZruxN
— Matt Orfalea (@0rf) December 7, 2023
Washington Post recently published a whopping eighteen articles—six of them just this week, comparing Donald Trump to Hitler after the Republican Presidential candidates’ remarks comparing communists and fascists to “vermin”. /3 pic.twitter.com/hzFhkQqq0Y
— Matt Orfalea (@0rf) December 7, 2023
In 2019, when Baltimore Sun's editorial board called Trump a “vermin” (after Trump called their city a “rodent-infested mess”), did the Post identify this as a dangerous “dehumanizing” call to violence”? Nope. They called the Sun’s grade school-level name-calling “brilliant”. /4 pic.twitter.com/90p8FMcim8
— Matt Orfalea (@0rf) December 7, 2023
Post reporter Hannah Knowles also forwarded the Sun’s classification of Trump as “vermin”, quoting one of the Sun editorial writers who said classifying Trump as a “vermin” was an “inescapable conclusion”. /5 pic.twitter.com/0xGox1Vdnw
— Matt Orfalea (@0rf) December 7, 2023
The Post didn’t just describe President Trump as vermin but Republicans in general—both those who supported Trump and those who didn’t. /6 pic.twitter.com/0QDUnDobzc
— Matt Orfalea (@0rf) December 7, 2023
In December 2020, WaPo published a cartoon depicting all Republican officials who supported Trump as disgusting evil rats. /7 pic.twitter.com/WguH0YUggN
— Matt Orfalea (@0rf) December 7, 2023
WaPo depicted Trump’s Republican supporters in Congress as “Republican rats", even before they questioned the integrity of the 2020 election. In a 2019 illustration, WaPo cartoonist Ann Telnaes drew dozens of evil-looking red-eyed vermin titled, “Trump’s Republican rats”. /8 pic.twitter.com/5YWq3uQ3gj
— Matt Orfalea (@0rf) December 7, 2023
WaPo depicted Trump’s Republican supporters in Congress as “Republican rats", even before they questioned the integrity of the 2020 election. In a 2019 illustration, WaPo cartoonist Ann Telnaes drew dozens of evil-looking red-eyed vermin titled, “Trump’s Republican rats”. /8 pic.twitter.com/5YWq3uQ3gj
— Matt Orfalea (@0rf) December 7, 2023
In 2017, Trump’s first year in office, WaPo dedicated an article to “Trump Rat”—a giant inflatable balloon depicting Donald Trump as a rat. /10 pic.twitter.com/FzUdteXDdu
— Matt Orfalea (@0rf) December 7, 2023
The “Trump Rat” article also featured several images of Trump as a rat, including a “Trump Rat” pencil sketch, and a “Trump Rat” digital rendering. /11 pic.twitter.com/JDwkigUuJ8
— Matt Orfalea (@0rf) December 7, 2023
The “giant inflatable rat with his face attached,” was given shout-outs in the other Post articles as well, including the big-time WaPo investigation titled “Melania is booed while speaking to students in Baltimore”. /12 pic.twitter.com/UuuvrAOIQq
— Matt Orfalea (@0rf) December 7, 2023
Even before Donald Trump was elected, WaPo was calling Republicans rats. In a June 2016 column, WaPo’s Jennifer Rubin incorrectly predicted a loss for Trump, writing that “he has ‘loser’ written all over him”. Rubin didn’t stop there though. /13 pic.twitter.com/XO17l3ElKf
— Matt Orfalea (@0rf) December 7, 2023
Rubin also insulted Republicans not supporting Trump, calling them “rats” fleeing a sinking vessel. “No wonder the rats are fleeing the sinking Trump ship,” she said. /14
— Matt Orfalea (@0rf) December 7, 2023
Later in August 2016, Rubin continued to falsely predict Trump would lose and label Republicans scared “rats”. /15 pic.twitter.com/tXmwtfz6iO
— Matt Orfalea (@0rf) December 7, 2023
In October 2016, Rubin referred to Republicans as “rats running from a sinking ship” a third time. /16 pic.twitter.com/2fGP3rrA70
— Matt Orfalea (@0rf) December 7, 2023
Despite having previously authored 3 WaPo articles describing Republicans—her political opponents—as vermin, Rubin has now authored 3 WaPo articles condemning Trump for describing his political opponents in the same language. /17
— Matt Orfalea (@0rf) December 7, 2023
Trump’s comments are “fascist” and “straight from Hitler’s playbook,” Rubin declares. “He’ll destroy democracy. /18 pic.twitter.com/tPiKG3rgZi
— Matt Orfalea (@0rf) December 7, 2023
Excuse us if we didn't get the vapors after Trump used the word vermin, having been called fascists and Nazis for four years. It seems the editors at the Post have long been using dehumanizing language like Hitler to encourage violence against Republicans. Maybe the Post can do a piece on itself echoing Hitler and Mussolini.
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