After Connecticut state attorney general posted a video of himself playing in the snow with a puppy his family is fostering, he said he received hundreds of hateful comments.

"We got hundreds upon hundreds of comments,” Tong said in a Wednesday press briefing. “Many comments that were hateful, racist. Many that asked if I was going to eat the dog or whether the dog was on the menu."

Tong, a Democrat, said it reminded him of the false claims from President Donald Trump last year about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, eating dogs and cats.

He said as a child growing up in Connecticut, he is no stranger to racist taunts, concerning Asians eating cats and dogs. His family owned a Chinese restaurant, and kids used to tease him by asking if his parents served cats and dogs.

Tong blames the recent increase in hateful rhetoric from the White House.

"The president has turned us against each other,” Tong said. “That is his essential skill. He is so good at it, turning all of us against each other one American against each other. We are more divided and more hateful than I have ever experienced in my lifetime.”

Tong urged everyone, including Republicans, to stand up and fight against racism.