On Friday Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia congresswoman known for saying hateful, false or simply unhinged things in public on the regular, added to her lunatic greatest hits when she compared efforts to prevent people from dying of COVID-19 to the Holocaust.
Greene was appearing this week on “The Water Cooler,” a show on the fringe conservative media outfit Real America’s Voice. Speaking to Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody, Greene was discussing Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
See, Republicans attempted to pass a bill this week ending the mask mandate in the House of Representatives, but the bill was defeated. Afterward, Pelosi noted that since so many Republican members of the House refuse to get vaccinated, it’s not safe to end the mask mandate. So the mask mandate continues largely because of how reckless Republicans are being with other people’s lives.
This stance really angered Republicans like Greene. So it is that in her appearance on “The Water Cooler,” she said:
“You know, we can look back at 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.”
Look, we probably shouldn’t have to tell you that asking people to wear a mask so that they won’t contract or spread a deadly illness that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, when those same people refuse to get vaccinated, isn’t remotely similar to the Holocaust. But just to be clear, what Greene says is false and inflammatory, which is why she was roundly condemned by Jewish advocacy groups.
Now to be clear, Greene didn’t invent this line of nonsense. Claims that COVID-19 safety measures, including efforts to encourage people to become vaccinated, are equivalent to the murder of millions of Jewish people by the Nazis, is a commonly expressed view on the extreme right. But it’s important that people be aware of the unhinged, false or even dangerous things extremists are saying, since so many people are saying them. So Greene’s version of this is as good as any to hold up as an example.
On the bright side, at least she didn’t find a way to bring up Jewish space lasers. Watch the clip below, if you like:
MTG says Speaker Pelosi wanting Members of Congress to get vaccinated and if not to wear masks is “exactly the type of abuse” as murdering Jews in gas chambers during the Holocaust and David Brody nods along. No follow up. pic.twitter.com/inXfD8UBiG
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) May 22, 2021
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