Russian President Vladimir Putin’s activities in Ukraine have been compared to those of Adolf Hitler’s by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to the Long Beach Press-Telegram. She compared Putin’s moves to Hitler’s “population transfers” in the 1930s.
Her comments came on Tuesday during a Boys & Girls Club of Long Beach fundraiser, which was a closed-door event.
“Now if this sounds familiar, it’s what Hitler did back in the 30s,” Clinton reportedly said. Clinton was talking about Putin’s plan to offer citizenship to residents of the Crimea region in Ukraine. “All the Germans that were … the ethnic Germans, the Germans by ancestry who were in places like Czechoslovakia and Romania and other places, Hitler kept saying they’re not being treated right. I must go and protect my people and that’s what’s gotten everybody so nervous.” Clinton described Putin as a man “who believes his mission is to restore Russian greatness.”
A reporter from the Press-Telegram attended the event, and quoted Clinton as saying, “When he looks at Ukraine, he sees a place that he believes is by its very nature part of Mother Russia.”
The executive director for Gazette Newspapers in Long Beach, Harry Saltzgaver, said he feels “badly” for leaking the comments from Clinton.
“I’m a news source for a national story. Frankly, I don’t think Clinton said anything that surprising, or inflamatory [sic]. But when a presumptive presidential candidate says something, it is going to be news. I feel badly, only because it seems like I’ve somehow breeched [sic] a confidence–even though I was never asked to keep anything in confidence. So instead of being the news, I’m reporting the news.”