What exact quotes did Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders make about authoritarian risks in 2016, and did they use the word Hitler?
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Executive summary
Hillary Clinton frequently used comparisons and warnings about authoritarian leaders during and after 2016; reporting shows she explicitly invoked Hitler in several speeches (for example, “Now if this sounds familiar, it’s what Hitler did back in the ’30s”) and later warned “Hitler was duly elected” when discussing Trump [1] [2]. Bernie Sanders used Holocaust references in 2016 to describe personal family history (not as a label for living candidates) — he said his “father’s family was wiped out by Hitler” in debate remarks [3].
1. What Hillary Clinton actually said: Hitler invoked in historical analogy
Clinton has a documented history of invoking Hitler as a historical analogy. In 2014 she told a private fundraiser — later quoted by the Long Beach Press‑Telegram and reported by Reuters — “Now if this sounds familiar, it’s what Hitler did back in the ’30s,” drawing a parallel between tactics used by Russia in Crimea and those used by Hitler in the lead‑up to World War II [1]. Reporting from later years confirms Clinton returned to the Hitler reference while warning about authoritarian risks: in 2023 and 2024 interviews and appearances she said “Hitler was duly elected” and used the history to warn about the potential consequences of a Trump return to power [2] [4].
2. What Bernie Sanders actually said in 2016: family memory and Holocaust references
Bernie Sanders’ quoted 2016 remarks in debate contexts feature him invoking Holocaust history in a personal way, not as a direct comparison of contemporary politicians to Hitler. In a Flint debate he recounted that “my father’s family was wiped out … I learned that lesson as a tiny, tiny child … we would see people working in stores who had numbers on their arms because they were in Hitler’s concentration camp,” using Holocaust memory to explain his identity and perspective [3]. Sources show Sanders explicitly denied comparing Trump to Hitler in other contexts [5].
3. Did either use the single word “Hitler” in 2016? The record
Yes for Clinton: contemporaneous reporting and transcripts capture Clinton using the name “Hitler” in 2014–2016-era remarks as an explicit historical reference — Reuters reproduced her line about “what Hitler did back in the ’30s” [1]. The later cited lines such as “Hitler was duly elected” are documented in 2023–2024 coverage [2] [4]. For Sanders: the available 2016 reporting records him referencing Hitler in relation to family Holocaust experience (“wiped out by Hitler”), but not as a political label applied to a living U.S. candidate in the cited sources [3].
4. How journalists and critics interpreted those uses in the 2016 context
Media and commentators treated Clinton’s Hitler analogies as a political move and a warning. Outlets noted that invoking Hitler is rhetorically risky and can be framed as strategy to draw stark contrasts with opponents; some pieces characterized her Putin/Hitler reference as intended to underscore national security concerns and to separate her from the Obama administration’s perceived weakness [1] [6]. Others later criticized her for drawing Nazi parallels to U.S. politics, which fed pushback from opponents who called the rhetoric extreme or inflammatory [7] [8].
5. What this collection of quotes means for claims circulating online
Online comparisons and memes claiming Clinton and Hitler uttered identical slogans or that she repeatedly equated specific 2016 rivals with Hitler are overstated in many instances; fact‑checking and archival pieces show Clinton did use Hitler as historical analogy on multiple occasions [1], and Snopes notes that many attributions linking Clinton verbatim to specific Hitler phrases are unsupported [9]. Conversely, Sanders’ 2016 public remarks documented in the mainstream press center on his family’s Holocaust experience rather than labeling contemporary politicians as Hitler [3].
6. Limits of available sources and outstanding gaps
Available sources supplied here document Clinton invoking Hitler in historical analogy [1] and later warning “Hitler was duly elected” [2] [4], and they document Sanders’ Holocaust‑linked family references [3]. These sources do not provide a comprehensive, line‑by‑line transcript of every 2016 speech by both figures, nor do they catalogue every instance either used the word “Hitler” across all appearances; available sources do not mention a single, exhaustive list of exact quotes from every 2016 event (not found in current reporting).
7. Bottom line for readers assessing “authoritarian” rhetoric
Clinton used the word “Hitler” in recorded public remarks and privately quoted fundraisers to make historical analogies about authoritarian tactics [1] [2]. Sanders referenced Hitler in 2016 primarily to recount family suffering in the Holocaust [3]. Interpretations vary: some outlets treated Clinton’s references as strategic warnings about authoritarian risk [1], while critics framed such analogies as hyperbolic. Readers should consult original transcripts or video of the specific remarks cited above when judging tone and intent; current reporting documents specific Hitler invocations but does not provide an exhaustive catalogue of all 2016 uses (not found in current reporting).