GOP megadonor likens Trump policies to Nazi Germany
Billionaire conservative Charles Koch says all 3 Republican candidates are ‘terrible,’ leaves door open to backing Clinton
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American billionaire industrialist and Republican Party megadonor Charles Koch compared GOP front-runner Donald Trump’s suggestion to force Muslims to register with the US government to Nazi Germany, and called rival candidate Ted Cruz’s proposal to carpet bomb the Middle East “frightening.”
Koch on Sunday said in an ABC News interview that the leading Republican candidate’s proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States was “antithetical to our approach.”
“But what was worse was this: we’ll have them all register. That’s reminiscent of Nazi Germany. I mean that’s monstrous as I said at the time,” Koch said, alluding to Trump’s suggestion of a database of American Muslims.
As for Cruz’s remark in December that, if elected president, he would be determined to find out “if sand can glow in the dark,” a reference to using nuclear weapons in the Middle East, Koch called the comment “hyperbole.”
“But I mean that a candidate, whether they believe it or not, would think that appeals to the American people. This is frightening,” Koch said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6vMnJwzqHw
Koch and his brother David have donated more than $100 million to conservative and libertarian policy and advocacy groups in the United States over the years, funding Republican Party campaigns for state and national government.
While his deep pockets were seen as key for candidates looking to make a run at the White House, Koch said he doesn’t anticipate spending money on supporting or opposing any Republican presidential nominee.
He also left open the prospect that Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton might be preferable to anyone currently seeking the GOP nod.
The candidate has to be liked as much as Ronald Reagan and “compete on making the country better” rather than tearing down opponents, he said.
Trump, Cruz and John Kasich, he told ABC, “are terrible role models.” He denied giving money to efforts to oppose Trump.
Koch also said “it’s possible” that Hillary Clinton would be better than a Republican. But he said that he’d “have to believe her actions would be quite different than her rhetoric.” The same standard, he said, goes for Republicans.
AP and JTA contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.