Top Republicans Denounce Marjorie Taylor Greene’s ‘Reprehensible’ Holocaust-Vaccine Comparison
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Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty; Chip Somodevilla/Getty From left: Mitch McConnell and Marjorie Taylor Greene
Republicans are, again, distancing themselves from an "outrageous" and "reprehensible" comment from freshman Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Greene, who has stirred repeated controversy with her provocative style since before she took office in January, on Tuesday compared a Tennessee grocery store's decision to have employees wear stickers showing they've been vaccinated against COVID-19 to the conditions Jewish people faced under the Nazis.
"Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazi's forced Jewish people to wear a gold star," Greene tweeted, comparing the logo to the identifying stars Jews were forced to wear.
"Vaccine passports & mask mandates create discrimination against unvaxxed people who trust their immune systems," she wrote.
Republicans, including the party's top lawmakers, soon slammed her comparison.
"Once again an outrageous and reprehensible comment," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN.
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Just stop. This is demented and dangerous. There is no comparison.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: while we cannot stop her from calling herself a Republican, we can and should refuse to let her caucus with the @HouseGOP. https://t.co/gqIUxVCxZi— Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) May 25, 2021
"Let me be clear: the House Republican Conference condemns this language," House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said in a statement.
"Marjorie is wrong, and her intentional decision to compare the horrors of the Holocaust with wearing masks is appalling," McCarthy's statement continued. "The Holocaust is the greatest atrocity committed in history. The fact that this needs to be stated today is deeply troubling."
Rep. Steve Scalise, the House of Representative's No. 2 GOP lawmaker, likewise denounced Greene's opinion through his spokesperson.
Elise Stefanik, who was recently named the House's No. 3-ranking Republican, tweeted that Greene's remark "belittles the most significant human atrocities ever committed."
Erin Scott-Pool/Getty Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
Democratic lawmakers had similarly sharp words.
"These are sickening, reprehensible comments, and she should stop this vile language immediately," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is the first Jewish Senate majority leader.
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Greene was stripped of all her House committee assignments earlier this year, less than a month into her first term, in a highly unusual punishment by her congressional colleagues over her history of incendiary behavior.
The instrumentalization of the tragedy of Jews who suffered, were humiliated, marked with a yellow star, isolated in ghettos & murdered during the Holocaust, in a debate on different systems that aim at protecting public health is a sad symptom of moral and intellectual decline. https://t.co/FuPehwNv1o
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) May 25, 2021
Earlier this month, Greene also "aggressively" confronted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the halls of Congress, causing Ocasio-Cortez and other lawmakers to ask for heightened security at the Capitol.
After Republicans and Democrats alike called out her Holocaust comment Tuesday, Greene doubled down on Twitter throughout the day by blaming "the woke media" and demanding her critics "stop twisting my words."
