Dem Michigan Rep. Debbie Dingell openly fretted Monday that she could be tossed in an internment camp along with Muslims and Arabs if Donald Trump wins the White House.
Dingell, 70, was visibily distraught when she made the stunning accusation — without evidence — that the former president plans to “start internment camps” and fill them with Arabs and Muslims, as well as political rivals such as her.
“The Arab American community needs to be reminded and cannot forget, he wants to ban Muslims. He wants to deport Muslims, and he wants to start internment camps. And that‘s what we are busy talking to every voter. He‘s telling you what he‘s going to do. Believe him,” Dingell told CNN’s Jake Tapper, who even was incredulous.
In 2015, Trump only called for a “shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” until officials could “figure out what is going on” in terms of vetting them for potential criminal ties, given that some of their countires are hotbeds of terrorism.
As president, he also took executive action to restrict travel from multiple Muslim-majority countries, but that got shot down in court.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt called Dingell’s comments “utterly absurd.”
Tapper was even taken aback by the congresswoman’s startling allegation.
“Internment camps?” he asked her.
“Yes. [Trump] has talked internment camps,” Dingell shot back. “You may have to visit me in one. I get worried enough when he talks about what he‘s going to do to his political enemies, but he has talked about them in this with different groups of people.”
In Trump’s current bid to reclaim the White House, he has vowed to round up illegal immigrants and deport them from the US if he wins. At times, he also has made vague vows to prosecute “those involved in unscrupulous behavior.”
In 2016, he pledged to name a prosecutor to go after his then-rival Hillary Clinton. Ultimately, that never came to fruition.
Tapper pressed the congresswoman, “I’ve heard [Trump] talking about rounding up undocumented migrants and, obviously, for that, you would need some sort of camp. But what do you mean internment camps for Muslims and Arabs?”
Dingell claimed Trump “has spoken about that in different audiences” but didn’t “have the exact citation right” handy during the interview.
Dingell’s office did not respond to Post requests for comment Tuesday.
Democrats and scores of Trump critics have been trafficking in incendiary rhetoric about the former president.
Over recent weeks, critics have pointed to Trump former Chief of Staff John Kelly and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, who have suggested that he’s a “fascist.”
Trump’s presidential foe, Dem Vice President Kamala Harris, was asked during a CNN town hall last week if she thought Trump was a fascist, and she replied, “Yes, I do.”
Harris claimed that if Trump wins, he would act as “a president who admires dictators and is a fascist.”
Throughout Harris’ campaign, both she and President Biden have portrayed Trump as a threat to democracy and harped on his unsuccessful efforts to overturn the 2020 election that he lost.
Trump has returned fire, calling Harris a fascist and a “radical Marxist.”
Still, recently, Trump urged his supporters to “be nice” after they chanted, “Lock her up!”
Dingell, who took her late husband John’s seat in 2015 when he retired, has long warned that it’s too close to predict which presidential candidate will win her key home state of Michigan next Tuesday.
Michigan has one of the largest Arab American populations in the country. More than 100,000 Democratic primary-race voters marked themselves as uncommitted during the primary earlier this year in protest over the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
Some polls have shown Trump gaining remarkable ground with Arab American voters this election cycle, rattling Democrats.
