Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) talked to MSNBC’s Chris Hayes about Donald Trump’s family-separation policy last night, and she used the kind of rhetoric we rarely hear from the longtime lawmaker.
“This is the United States of America; it’s not Nazi Germany,” Feinstein said. “We don’t take children from their parents — until now.”
Two hours later, Attorney General Jeff Sessions sat down with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham and addressed the kinds of concerns raised by the senator:
INGRAHAM: Nazi Germany, concentration camps, human rights violations. Laura Bush has weighed in. Michelle Obama, Rosalynn Carter, you’ve got all of the first ladies, going back to Eleanor Roosevelt, she’s apparently weighed in as well. General Sessions, what’s going on here?
SESSIONS: Well, it’s a real exaggeration, of course. In Nazi Germany, they were keeping the Jews from leaving the country.
The Alabama Republican went on to present a defense of the administration’s immigration policies in general, as if he hadn’t just talked about the nuances that separate the Trump administration’s family-separation policy from the Nazis’ family-separation policy.
There’s an old political joke that says, “If you’re explaining, you’re losing.” It’s apparently time to update the joke so that it now says, “If you’re explaining why your policy isn’t quite as bad as Nazi Germany, you’re losing.”
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."