Tomi Lahren is latest to compare pandemic rules to Nazism in critiquing flight attendants' mask enforcements
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Fox News commentator Tomi Lahren on Thursday joined a growing number of right-wing pundits and politicians comparing covid-19 restrictions to Nazism.
Lahren took issue with some flight attendants' enforcement of federal mask mandates on airplanes during a segment on the show "Outnumbered."
"There are so many good flight attendants out there, but there are some flight attendants out there that take their job as the mask police to extremes, becoming almost Nazis of the air," Lahren, a host on the Fox Nation subscription service, said. "And it's ridiculous."
None of the other four panelists on the segment responded to the Nazi comparison, which drew criticism on social media, where a clip showing her comments was viewed more than half a million times.
Lahren's remarks come as some conservative politicians have drawn fire for comparing the enforcement of covid-19 policies to Nazi atrocities during the Holocaust. On Tuesday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., called the people aiding President Joe Biden's push to encourage Americans to get vaccinated "medical brown shirts."
"Brownshirts" refer to a paramilitary organization that helped the Nazi Party rise to power. Greene's comments came weeks after she visited the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and apologized for previously comparing face-mask policies to the Nazi practice of labeling Jews with Star of David badges, The Washington Post's Felicia Sonmez reported this week.
Last week, Washington state Rep. Jim Walsh wore a yellow Star of David to show how "denying people their rights . . . can lead to terrible outcomes" in the covid-19 era. He later apologized.
Lahren, who once referred to social distancing as "willful slavery," said the strict enforcement of mask mandates is irritating some airline passengers. Airlines have reported a sharp uptick in bad behavior from passengers this year.
"It drops beneath your nose," Lahren said, referencing a slipping mask, and flight attendants are "constantly getting mad at you."
"It's no wonder people are getting frustrated," she said.
The Federal Aviation Administration told The Post in June that it received about 2,200 reports of passengers refusing to comply with face-covering mandates since January. On Monday, an American Airlines flight from Charlotte to the Bahamas was delayed after a group of students refused to wear their masks on the plane.
Flight attendants dealing with the spate of passengers' bad behavior face serious challenges in the air, Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, told The Post in June.
"If you talked with some flight attendants, they would certainly say this is the worst we've ever seen it," Nelson said, less than a month after a passenger allegedly knocked out a flight attendant's teeth. "It's pervasive. There is constant conflict on board."
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The Washington Post's Hannah Sampson contributed to this report.
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