Biden, Harris condemn Trump ‘unified Reich’ social media video

Vice President Kamala Harris called a recent social media post referencing a “unified Reich” shared on former President Donald Trump’s account “appalling” as she warned of “extremists” trying to divide the nation while delivering remarks at the SEIU’s quadrennial convention in Philadelphia on Tuesday. 

Hours later, President Joe Biden condemned the video in a social media post showing him reacting to the video.

“Is this on his official account?” Biden asks someone off camera, before adding: “A ‘unified Reich?’ That’s Hitler’s language, that’s not America’s.”

Biden closes by saying that Trump “cares about holding on to power.”

“I care about you,” he adds.

Aat a fundraiser in Boston on Tuesday, Biden similarly hammered Trump over the “unified Reich” video, attacking his previous rhetoric echoing Nazi Germany and adding that losing the 2020 election “unhinged” the ex-president.

“Trump and the MAGA Republicans are in disarray,” Biden said. “It’s clear when he lost in 2020 something snapped in this guy. I mean, really, there’s something different. He just can’t accept the fact that he lost.”

“The threat that Trump poses is greater in the second term than it was in the first,” the president added, per the pool. “He’s only obsessed with one thing about losing in 2020. It unhinged him. I meant it. The guy’s a little unhinged.”

“Trump isn’t running to lead America,” Biden later added. “He’s running on revenge. He really is.”

Harris made a similar case at the Pennsylvania Convention Center earlier Tuesday, saying that “in this moment, extremists are trying to divide our nation and we see them as they encourage xenophobia and hate.”

She then went on to discuss the video shared on Trump’s Truth Social account on Monday that included references to a “unified Reich” among hypothetical news headlines if he wins the election in November.

“This kind of rhetoric is unsurprising coming from the former president and it is appalling and we got to tell him who we are,” Harris said. “And once again, it shows our freedoms and our very democracy are at stake.” 

The headline appears among messages flashing across the screen such as “Trump wins!!” and “Economy booms!” Other headlines appear to be references to World War I. The word “Reich” is often largely associated with Nazi Germany’s Third Reich, though the references in the video Trump shared appear to be a reference to the formation of the modern pan-German nation, unifying smaller states into a single Reich, or empire, in 1871.

On Tuesday morning, the post of the video had been deleted.

“This was not a campaign video, it was created by a random account online and reposted by a staffer who clearly did not see the word, while the President was in court,” Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s campaign press secretary, told AP News in a statement, referencing the former president’s hush money trial taking place on Monday in New York. 

“In the face of these attacks, let us remind each other of our collective power,” Harris said on Tuesday. “Let us continue to stand against those who dare to attack our freedoms.” 

Harris also used Tuesday remarks in front of members of the Service Employees International Union to boast about the Biden administration’s record on setting minimum staffing standards in federally-funded nursing homes, banning noncompete clauses and making it easier for workers to organize on federal property. 

The vice president also noted that the administration raised the minimum wage for federal contractors to $15 an hour and will continue to fight to lift the wage for all workers. 

“November is gonna be about two choices, so let’s be clear about that, let’s be clear about that,” the vice president said. “And whereas the last administration buried our country in debt to pay for tax cuts for billionaires, we are helping dig families out of debt by telling billionaires to pay their fair share.”

Harris praised the labor group – which consists of about two million members – for being on the “frontlines of every major expansion of rights to the American people” since its founding. 

“When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. marched on Washington, the workers of SEIU marched by his side to demand both racial justice and economic justice,” Harris said. “And long before others, this union, this union, fought, fought to protect the rights and freedoms, the basic dignity of women, immigrants, people with disabilities and LGBTQ Americans.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.