Image by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

By Josh Nathan-Kazis January 11, 2017

In a heated exchange during a Trump Tower press conference today, President-elect Donald Trump reiterated his Tweet comparing the U.S. intelligence services to the Nazis.

“I think it was disgraceful that the intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake out,” Trump said, referring to the mysterious dossier posted online last night by the website Buzzfeed. “I think it’s a disgrace. And I say that. And that’s something that Nazi Germany would have done, and did do.”

The Gestapo, the secret police organization that functioned as a lead Nazi intelligence agency, murdered 1.5 million Jews during the German occupation of the Soviet Union. The intelligence division within the Schutzstaffel was also instrumental in carrying out the Nazi’s effort to exterminate the Jews of Europe.

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Trump’s tweet this morning was in response to a series of stories about a mysterious dossier alleging that members of Trump’s inner circle met with Russian officials during the campaign to discuss Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee.

Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to “leak” into the public. One last shot at me.Are we living in Nazi Germany?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2017

Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected]

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