Former RNC Chair Reince Priebus clashed with former DNC Chair Donna Brazile over the claim that GOP voters want "more blood" in the 2024 campaign.
During a panel discussion on ABC's This Week program, ABC analyst Averi Harper reflected on Nazi-style rhetoric used in Trump's campaign speeches.
"He has really had this real intense flirtation with authoritarian leaders," Harper said. "He has spoken to and echoed back to lines that have to do with Hitler, right?"
"He did not speak about migrants or immigrants from Europe, right?" she continued. "Poisoning the blood was the phrase he used, which is obviously an incredibly loaded phrase. Like the vermin phrase, the word that he used. And this is rhetoric that he continues to use on the trail."
Host Jonathan Karl recalled that Priebus had tried to convince Trump to condemn former KKK leader David Duke during the 2016 campaign.
"Do you worry that, you know, does he rush us towards this nomination, that he's going off those into those places that you tried to keep him from going?" Karl asked.
"Not particularly, because I think you're all misreading the electorate," Priebus insisted. "I think that the electorate is not looking for less blood. I think they're looking for more blood."
"I think, as I've said before, people are looking for a bigger middle finger this time than they were in 2016," he added.
Brazile interrupted.
"Mr. Chairman, let me just say this," she began. "You're talking about taking millions of people off their health care, which is Donald Trump. He is pledged to do that. That's blood."
"You're talking about suspending the United States Constitution, something that Donald Trump has said," she noted. "You know what I don't get? I don't get the fact that you're willing to stand up for someone who's praising dictators as he did."
"Listen, what I'm doing here, Donna, OK, I am telling you what the reality on the ground is," Priebus scoffed. "And if you can convince me that those 100,000 [swing voters] are worried about Donald Trump suspending the Constitution."
"You know, even though he said that on multiple occasions," Karl observed.
"You have to be able to convince people that are voting that he means what he says," Priebus argued.
