Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on Monday visited the Holocaust museum and apologized for “offensive” comments she made last month that compared policies requiring face masks during the coronavirus pandemic to the Holocaust.
“This afternoon, I visited the Holocaust Museum,” Greene said. “The Holocaust is — there’s nothing comparable to it.”
She acknowledged the systemic killing of six million Jews before adding: “But there is no comparison to the Holocaust. And there are words that I have said, remarks that I have made, that I know are offensive, and for that, I want to apologize.”
Earlier this year, the House voted to remove Greene from her committee assignments over past comments and social media posts where she appeared to endorse violence against Democratic lawmakers.
The words of apology now come as Greene faces down the possible threat of censure, weeks after lumping coronavirus mask mandates with Holocaust references in an interview, and later doubled down in tweets.
“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,” Greene said in an interview with right-wing news outlet Real America’s Voice.
Days later, she compared a notation for vaccinated employees at a supermarket to the Nazi practice of labeling Jews with Star of David badges.
“Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazi’s forced Jewish people to wear a gold star,” she wrote on Twitter. The post linked to an article about a Tennessee supermarket chain’s decision to include a logo on the name badges of vaccinated employees.
While apologizing for some of her comments, the Georgia lawmaker did not back down from other incendiary remarks, including a comparison she made during an “America First” rally between the Democratic Party and Hitler’s party.
Greene told attendees at the rally last month that Hitler’s anti-Semitic ultranationalist party was socialist: “You know, Nazis were the National Socialist Party. Just like the Democrats are now a national socialist party.”
But Greene did not back down from that statement on Monday.
“I’ll never stop saying we have to save America and stop socialism,” she told reporters, according to the Washington Post.
Last month, Rep. Bradley Schneider (D-IL) announced plans to introduce a resolution to censure her over the Holocaust comparison which he is set to introduce this week.
When @RepMTG repeatedly compared the US Covid-response to Hitler and the Holocaust, she dishonored the millions of lives lost in WWII and the Shoah. She has forgotten America’s fight against the Nazi menace.
On Wednesday, we’re introducing our resolution to censure her.
— Rep. Brad Schneider (@RepSchneider) June 14, 2021
Aside from condemning the Holocaust comparison, House GOP leadership has not taken action against Greene for her remarks.
I’m sorry if some snowflakes took it the wrong way.
This is a lose-lose for MTG: she had to “back down”, which will displease her MAGAt-loon base, but she’s avoiding censure, which will mean that she continues to say vile things–which is good for Dems.
I hate that we have to think this way, but we do.
Looks like this mentally ill loon is getting schooled on the Holocaust. Wonder who required her to go to the museum?
In her “apology” yesterday, Congresswoman Greene noted that she had visited Auschwitz as a 19-year old. But somehow the magnitude of what she saw in her youth didn’t make much of an impression on her, as she made one of the grossest comparisons of apples to oranges in recent memory and did so with the authority and responsibility of her seat in Congress.
Only after her tour of the Holocaust Museum did she realize the error and inappropriateness of her earlier statements about mask-wearing? What does that tell you about someone if they can see firsthand a Nazi death camp in their formative learning years and still be able to trivialize it as an adult?
Don’t give her any oxygen through the press. Ignore her. She cannot be reasoned with and will not accept reality. She survives by making these outrageous statements for her “supporters”. She and her type will pass. Minimize her voice and exposure and continue work to politically crush her through policies that work and solve problems.