Several GOP lawmakers are condemning fellow Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene after the Georgia lawmaker compared the House’s mask mandate to the Holocaust.
Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney lambasted Greene’s comparison as “evil lunacy” in a tweet. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, (R-IL) tweeted that Greene’s remarks amount to “Absolute sickness.” And Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Mich., said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the comments were “beyond reprehensible.”
“This is, I don’t even have words to describe how disappointing it is to see this hyperbolic speech that frankly amps up and plays into a lot of the antisemitism that we’ve been seeing in our society today,” he said.
The latest pushback to Greene is in response to comments she made during an appearance last week on “The Water Cooler with David Brody.” In that interview, Greene lamented to a nodding Brody about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to maintain a mask mandate on the House floor because of concerns many GOP members may not be vaccinated.
“This woman is mentally ill,” Greene said of Pelosi, D-Calif. “You know, we can look back in a time in history where people were told to wear a gold star, and they were definitely treated like second-class citizens — so much so that they were put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany and this is exactly the type of abuse that Nancy Pelosi is talking about.”
She was referencing the millions of Jews who were forced to wear a Star of David on their clothes, sent to concentration camps and murdered during World War II. A poll conducted this year showed an increase in antisemitism around the world as well as a lack of awareness among adults under 40 about the Holocaust, with 11 percent believing it was caused by Jewish people.
The American Jewish Congress called on Greene on Twitter to apologize and retract her comments, saying “such comparisons demean the Holocaust & contaminate American political speech.” A Change.org petition to have House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., expel her from Congress had attracted almost 25,000 signatures by late Sunday afternoon.
Greene has come under repeated scrutiny for her past promotion of conspiracy theories like QAnon and for having appeared to endorse violence against Pelosi before she sought office. She has also aggressively confronted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez demanding a debate with her.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., condemned her for spreading “loony lies,” and the Democratic-controlled House remove her from committees in February in a vote backed by 11 Republicans.
This is evil lunacy. https://t.co/xHeUgbx7wa
— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) May 22, 2021
Absolute sickness. https://t.co/rdfulbPl75
— Adam Kinzinger (@AdamKinzinger) May 22, 2021
