Democratic presidential candidate and former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke speaks during a campaign event in Sioux City, Iowa, on Thursday, April 4, 2019. (Justin Wan/Sioux City Journal via AP)

Democratic presidential candidate and former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke speaks during a campaign event in Sioux City, Iowa, on Thursday, April 4, 2019. (Justin Wan/Sioux City Journal via AP)

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke is comparing the rhetoric used by President Donald Trump to describe immigrants to the rhetoric used in Nazi Germany.

At a town hall in Iowa on Thursday, O’Rourke called out “the rhetoric of a president who not only describes immigrants as rapists and criminals but as animals and an infestation,” in response to a question on how he would address attacks from Republicans.

The former congressman from Texas says, “Now, I might expect someone to describe another human being as an infestation in the Third Reich. I would not expect that in the United States of America.”

ADVERTISEMENT

O’Rourke says he will avoid using similar rhetoric because “if we descend into that pettiness and meanness and those personal attacks, I’m not sure that we can win.”

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.