Trump’s ‘good genes’ comment at Bemidji rally draws condemnation – By Maya Rao (Star Tribune) / Sept 21 2020
Bemidji remarks about “good genes” compared to “race science.”
President Donald Trump’s praise of a nearly all white crowd’s “good genes” came during a Friday night rally in Bemidji where he also sharpened attacks on refugees.
He opened his speech by calling the group “hardworking American patriots” and raising alarms that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden would flood the state with Somali refugees. Trump said near the end of his wide-ranging, nearly two-hour speech that the state was pioneered by men and women who were tough and strong and braved the wilderness and winters to build a better life.
“You have good genes, you know that, right?” Trump said. “You have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes, isn’t it, don’t you believe? The racehorse theory. You think we’re so different? You have good genes in Minnesota.”
Some heard echoes of language Nazis used to justify their genetic superiority and which led to the killing of 6 million Jews during the Holocaust.
“For Minnesota Jews, it’s chilling to hear this language, which echoes the ‘race science’ used by the Nazis to justify the extermination of so many of our ancestors,” Carin Mrotz, executive director of Jewish Community Action, said in an e-mail Monday. “But we recognize that the president is choosing this language intentionally, celebrating the supposed genetic superiority of European immigrants here in Minnesota on stolen Native land that has become home to immigrants from all over the world, to sow division and hatred between us.”
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