California GOP Guv Candidate Uses Holocaust Survivor Story To Talk DMV Lines

SAN DIEGO, CA-MAY 5: California GOP Gubernatorial Candidate John Cox speaks during an election eve party at the U.S. Grant Hotel in San Diego, California on Tuesday, June 5, 2018.  Cox, a businessman from Rancho Santa Fe, CA, is the leading Republican candidate for Governor of California(Photo by Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)
SAN DIEGO, CA-MAY 5: California GOP Gubernatorial Candidate John Cox speaks during an election eve party at the U.S. Grant Hotelon June 5, 2018 in San Diego, California. Cox, a businessman from Rancho Santa Fe, CA,... SAN DIEGO, CA-MAY 5: California GOP Gubernatorial Candidate John Cox speaks during an election eve party at the U.S. Grant Hotelon June 5, 2018 in San Diego, California. Cox, a businessman from Rancho Santa Fe, CA, is the leading Republican candidate for Governor of California(Photo by Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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The Republican candidate for governor of California paid a visit to a DMV on Wednesday and casually compared standing in line at the notoriously sedate agency to the plight of a Holocaust survivor in pre-war Germany, Capital Public Radio reported.

The campaign for the Republican candidate and businessman John Cox later clarified to TPM that Cox — who has been visiting DMV’s to point out the failings of the agency — misspoke. In audio of the event recorded by Capital Public Radio, Cox introduces himself to a woman and asks her how long she’s been waiting in line. The woman says she’s been in line “close to an hour,” provoking Cox to launch into a diatribe recounting a conversation he’d had previously with a Holocaust survivor.

“You know, I met a Holocaust survivor in Long Beach. He survived concentration camps, and he said this was worse. He’s 90 years old and he had to wait four hours down in Long Beach. Can you imagine that?” Cox says, according to the Capital Public Radio audio.

His campaign spokesperson told the local radio station that Cox misspoke when he called the lines “worse” than the Holocaust. They also gave Capital Public Radio an audio recording of Cox sharing the same story, but accurately, earlier this week.

“He was saying that it reminded him of pre-war Germany” when Jewish people waited in lines to be processed, Cox spokesperson Matt Shupe told the radio station. “In no way does he mean this as a slight to the Jewish community. He misspoke. It’s very unfortunate. But it’s nothing more than that.”

Shupe did not immediately respond to TPM’s request for comment about whether Cox will discontinue his use of the Holocaust survivor’s story to illustrate the long lines at the DMV.

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Notable Replies

  1. Clearly this shit has never dealt with a cable company…

  2. What the actual hell? Do the Republicans purposefully search for lunatics?

  3. Anyone be able to tell me why it’s ok to compare ANYTHING to the holocaust? For that matter, what about comparing ANYTHING to slavery? If you didn’t directly experience it, keep the word(s) out of your mouth.

    Dope.

  4. In a California DMV there are only long lines for those lacking the bootstraps to make an appointment, dummy.

  5. Keep up the effective campaigning, Mr. Cox! Go for it!

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