New DNC chair calls Trump 'worst president in the history of the US,' invokes 'the resistance

New Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez called President Donald Trump the "worst president in the history of the United States" Saturday after Perez was chosen to lead the DNC.

Perez, who was labor secretary under Barack Obama, was chosen over liberal Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison at the DNC meeting in Atlanta. Ellison was endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and his supporters expressed their displeasure after he failed in his bid to lead the DNC and lost to Perez.

Perez, the first Latino to head the DNC, gave an impassioned speech following his win in which he called Trump the worst president throughout the entire span of U.S. history, and also alluded to "the resistance," referring to an ostensible unified left-wing opposition to Trump and his policies.

"Someday they're going to study this era in American history and they're gonna study it alongside the Know-Nothing movement," Perez said. "And they're gonna ask the question of all of us: 'Where were you in 2017, when we had the worst president in the history of the United States?'"

"And we will all be able to say: The united Democratic Party led the resistance, ensuring that this president was a one-term president and [that we] elected democrats across this country," Perez continued.

The Know-Nothing Party was an American political party that sprang up in the mid 1800s that was openly opposed to immigrants and Catholics. The rise of the Know-Nothings was predicated upon an influx of millions of immigrants to the U.S. from Ireland and Italy, with a vast majority of  new pilgrims being Roman Catholic.

By using the rhetoric "the resistance," Perez seemed also to be issuing a dog whistle to protesters around the country who have called themselves "The Resistance" as they organize in opposition to Trump and his administration's policies. They have placed special emphasis on Trump's recent travel ban executive order barring travel from seven Muslim-majority countries.

Left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore published via Twitter a "Resistance Calendar"  Monday that may have been partially responsible for some of the recent protests that have occurred at GOP-led town hall meetings.