Donald Trump told supporters in Georgia on Monday that he is the “opposite of a Nazi,” responding to comparisons of his Sunday rally at Madison Square Garden to a pro-Nazi rally in 1939 at the same location.

The former president also tried to turn criticism of his meeting into a flashpoint for all Trump supporters by falsely claiming that Vice President Kamala Harris is calling those who voted for him Nazis.

“The latest line from Kamala and her campaign is that anyone who doesn’t vote for her is a Nazi,” Trump told supporters at a rally in Georgia, a line his Democratic rival has not actually said.

Harris threw himself last week after Atlantic reported that Trump, while in the White House, had expressed admiration for the loyalty of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi generals. That report was corroborated by retired Marine General John Kelly, Trump’s chief of staff from 2017 to 2019, who separately told The New York Times that Trump fit the definition of a fascist.

Harris answered these reports at a CNN town hall, says she believes Trump is a fascist and that “the people who know him best on this subject should be trusted.” Her campaign has also used The Atlantic’s report and Kelly’s comments in ads in recent days.

Trump appeared to respond to those comments Monday night in Georgia, when he said his father had urged him never to describe people like Nazis or Hitler.

“He always used to say, ‘Never use the word Nazi. Never use that word.’ And he would say, ‘Don’t ever use the word Hitler. Don’t use that word,'” Trump said.

Referring to the Democrats, Trump added: “They use that word — it’s really both words. ‘He’s Hitler.’ And then they say, ‘He’s a Nazi.'”

“I’m not a Nazi,” Trump said. “I’m the opposite of a Nazi.”

Trump also responded to Harris calling him a fascist by saying: “She’s a fascist, okay? She’s a fascist.”

Trump’s description of Harris comes despite Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell days earlier calling the vice president’s use of the word “reckless” and arguing it could lead to violence.

The attacks on Harris are coming amid the political fallout of Trump’s Sunday rally at iconic Madison Square Garden, there a comedian opening for the former president called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” — a comment that drew widespread condemnation and sparked backlash among a fast-growing Latino community in Pennsylvania.

Harris told reporters Monday that the inflammatory comments at the Trump rally in Madison Square Garden “were not new” for a former president who regularly uses violent rhetoric against undocumented immigrants.

“It’s just more of the same, and maybe more vibrant, than usual,” Harris said. “Donald Trump spends full time trying to get Americans to point fingers at each other. He fans the fuel of hatred and division, and that’s why people are exhausted with him.”

Harris has not called Trump, or his supporters, Nazis. But her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, said Sunday there was “a direct parallel” between Trump’s wild Madison Square Garden rally and the infamous 1939 gathering of Nazi supporters at the landmark New York City arena.

“And don’t think for a second that he doesn’t know exactly what they’re doing there,” Walz said.

Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, complained Monday about that comparison.

“They decided to compare us to literal Nazis because they gathered in Madison Square Garden and celebrated America. Of course, these are the same people who call us racists because we want to secure the southern border. They are the same people who have no plans , no ideas and no solutions. All they have is hatred for their fellow citizens,” Vance said at a campaign stop in Wisconsin.

Later, at another event, Vance argued that the values ​​of American soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy to fight Nazi Germany in World War II are far from the policies Harris supports.

“If you think those brave men were fighting for an open border and gender reassignment surgeries for illegal aliens,” Vance said, “the right term for you is ‘dipsh*t.'”

CNN’s Kit Maher, Aaron Pellish, Nikki Carvajal, Michael Williams and Kate Sullivan contributed to this report.

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