Republicans ripped Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz for comparing former President Donald Trump’s Sunday Madison Square Garden rally to a notorious pro-Nazi event held in the arena’s predecessor 85 years ago.
“Donald Trump’s got this big rally going at Madison Square Garden,” said Walz during a stop in Henderson, Nev., on his “Fighting For Reproductive Freedom” bus tour. “There’s a direct parallel to a big rally that happened in the 1930s at Madison Square Garden.“
The Trump campaign and GOP were quick to denounce the comparison.
“I was there last night & saw thousands of patriotic Americans of all races, religions, and creeds. Tim Walz should apologize to them,” posted Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) on X.
“Tim Walz smearing tens of thousands of Americans as Nazis, including a Holocaust survivor in attendance, is more offensive than any joke,” added Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.).
“Comparing President Trump — who has Jewish children and grandchildren — to Hitler is shameful, and trivializes the Holocaust,” thundered the Republican Jewish Coalition in a statement. “Attacking Trump supporters as fascists is a disgrace.
“If Donald Trump was as dangerous as Kamala Harris and Tim Walz hysterically claim he is, Democrats Elissa Slotkin, Tammy Baldwin, and Bob Casey would not be featuring him in advertisements, and Holocaust survivors would not be praising him,” the RJC went on. “Even the Democrat Mayor of New York City, where today’s rally is taking place, has rejected these outrageous claims by Kamala Harris.”
“This reeks of desperation from a campaign floundering in the polls,” the coalition concluded.
Left-leaning networks like MSNBC leaned into the comparison by splicing in footage from the hateful 1939 rally by the German American Bund with clips of Trump’s supporters.
The Harris campaign has been hitting Trump, 78, for expressing admiration for “fascists” like Hitler — and boosted press coverage of the Sunday rally on offensive remarks and a crude joke by a comedian who described Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”
On Friday, a Holocaust survivor — who attended the Madison Square Garden rally — lashed out in a new Trump campaign video at Harris and her campaign for invoking comparisons between Trump and Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
“Adolf Hitler invaded Poland when I was 9 years old. He murdered my parents and most of my family,” Jerry Wartski, 94, said in the video first obtained by The Post.
“I know more about Hitler than Kamala will ever know in a thousand lifetimes,” Wartski went on, rolling up the left sleeve of his collared shirt to show his Auschwitz prisoner number.
When asked whether Jewish Americans should support Trump in 2024, Wartski was quick to respond: “He’s a mensch.”
“I believe that President Trump is definitely going to be good for Israel because everything that he’s done up until now was in [its] favor,” he said. “He has always stood with the Jewish people and the state of Israel.”
Wartski also said Harris “owes my parents and everybody else who was murdered by Hitler an apology for repeating this lie.”
The nonagenarian later attended the Madison Square Garden rally, giving a double thumbs up in a Trump homage while being snapped for a photo.
The current incarnation of Madison Square Garden opened in 1968, replacing the venue where the 1939 rally was held. It hosted the 1976, 1980 and 1992 Democratic National Conventions.
Failed 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had also claimed last week that the former president’s campaign event would be “reenacting the Madison Square Garden rally in 1939.”
“Kamala Harris’ campaign is copying Hillary Clinton’s strategy of attacking half the country,” said Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt in a statement.
“Tim Walz needs to apologize for his disgraceful comments smearing Trump supporters. This kind of rhetoric has already inspired assassination attempts.”
The Harris-Walz campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.