Former U.S. President Donald Trump, the current Republican presidential nominee, on Friday compared the detention of his supporters charged or convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol to the mass incarceration of more than 112,000 people of Japanese descent without charges during World War II.

“Why are they still being held? Nobody’s ever been treated like this,” Trump said in an interview with conservative commentator Dan Bongino. “Maybe the Japanese during Second World War, frankly. They were held, too.”

Trump has repeatedly sought to downplay the violent attack on the Capitol by supporters who were attempting to prevent a joint session of Congress from counting the Electoral College votes to formally certify the victory of then-President-elect Joe Biden.