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‘The playbook of Hitler’: Nutter wants to ban Trump from Philly

A day after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he would ban all Muslims from the country, Mayor Nutter said he wants to ban Trump from Philadelphia.

A day after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he would ban all Muslims from the country, Mayor Nutter said he wants to ban Trump from Philadelphia.

Nutter decried Trump's words, saying "nothing more vile or ignorant" could be said and accusing the candidate of taking "a page from the playbook of Hitler."

"Certainly if I had the power to do so, the only banning that should be done is that of that person not being allowed in the city of Philadelphia. We have no place for that kind of ignorance and tolerance and lack of understanding of what our country is about," Nutter said.

The mayor addressed the media Tuesday about Trump and the pig's head that was found outside a North Philadelphia mosque, prior to his scheduled endorsement of Katie McGinty for U.S. Senate.

"Donald Trump's comments are a threat to the moral security of the United States. It engenders level of fear, fear-mongering, that we have not seen literally since the 1930s and '40s," Nutter said.

"He has taken a page from the playbook of Hitler: Demonize a group, blame that group for our country's problems, and then seek to ban or eliminate that group as some kind of solution to a problem that does not exist."

Nutter added: "My fear is that a reality-TV person, a cartoon clown, is one thing. The concern here is that other Americans are actually paying attention to this insanity. That people are buying into this message. And that somehow his strength in the electorate continues to grow as he goes to the right of himself with more and more dangerous and insane comments.

"Donald Trump is literally trying to radicalize our fellow Americans against our American Muslim and international Muslim brothers and sisters. … He and his message of hate have no place in Philadelphia."

Nutter said police were investigating the "act of ignorance" that was found at the Al Aqsa Islamic Society on Germantown Avenue. A worker found a severed pig's head outside the mosque's door on Monday. Nutter called the incident "the height of insult" and vowed "continued vigilance with regard to the desecration of the mosque."

"We will at some point in time find the coward, the person who lacked understanding and sensitivity, who did what they did," Nutter added.

The mayor had a direct message to the city's Muslim community: "You will be safe and secure in the city. Your presence and your act of involvement in the life of Philadelphia is desperately needed."

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