By GB News (World News) | Created at 2024-10-29 18:23:44 | Updated at 2024-10-30 17:31:10
1 day ago
MSNBC has been criticised after it broadcast images of a Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden during a rally by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
The broadcaster took footage from a rally held in 1939 with the crowd making Nazi salutes in the former arena built on the same site.
Around 20,000 people attended the Nazi rally in 1939, which was billed at the time as a "pro-America rally."
Attendees wore Nazi armbands, waved American flags and held aloft posters with slogans like "Stop Jewish Domination of Christian America."
A supporter looks on as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks on stage during a rally at Madison Square Garden
Reuters
Donald Trump's rally was likened to a Nazi rally
Reuters
Broadcasting images from the event alongside Trump's event this week, host Jonathan Capehart narrated: "In 1939, more than 20,000 supporters of a different fascist leader, Adolf Hitler, packed the Garden for a so-called pro-America rally.
"Against that backdrop of history, Donald Trump, the man who has threatened to use the military against opponents he calls 'enemies from within', who has threatened to use the troops to quell what he says are lawless cities and to use those troops to carry out mass deportations of immigrants, is once again turning Madison Square Garden into a staging ground for extremism."
One of those critical was owner of X, formerly Twitter, Elon Musk, who said: "Wow, MSNBC is utter scum of the Earth."
Musk also reposted images of an Israeli flag being hung from an upper balcony, as well as black, Asian and Jewish speakers at the event.
LATEST IN THE RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE 2024
Supporters cheer as they watch a live transmission on a screen during a rally for Trump
Reuters
Trump's opponent Kamala Harris said Trump "fans the fuel of hate and division, and that's why people are exhausted with him."
Later, Trump rejected Harris' contention that he is a fascist telling thousands at a rally in Atlanta: "I'm not a Nazi. I'm the opposite of a Nazi."
Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz made similar comparisons between the event in 1939 and Trump’s rally on Sunday.
He told an event in Nevada: "Donald Trump’s got this big rally going at Madison Square Garden...There’s a direct parallel to a big rally that happened in the mid-1930s at Madison Square Garden...And don’t think that he doesn’t know for one second exactly what they’re doing there."
Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk stands next to his son during a rally for Donald Trump
Reuters
In a poll by Reuters/Ipsos published last week, Harris held a marginal 46 per cent to 43 per cent lead over Trump.
Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who opened for Trump in addition to Musk and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, caused a backlash after he called the US territory of Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage" and disparaged Black Americans, Jewish people and Latinos.
Meanwhile Harris has spent the last week appearing with high-profile celebrities to try to draw voters to the polls. She held a rally with Bruce Springsteen in Atlanta on Thursday and with Beyoncé in Houston on Friday.
