Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Tuesday compared vaccine passports to the gold star that Jewish people were forced to wear under the Nazi regime, sparking condemnation from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Democratic calls to censure her.
“Marjorie is wrong, and her intentional decision to compare the horrors of the Holocaust with wearing masks is appalling. The Holocaust is the greatest atrocity committed in history. The fact that this needs to be stated today is deeply troubling,” Mr. McCarthy said. “Let me be clear: the House Republican Conference condemns this language.”
In the same statement, the Republican leader accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of ignoring increased antisemitism that is “on the rise.”
Mr. McCarthy, of California, did not outline any steps to punish Ms. Greene, who earlier Tuesday tweeted: “Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazi’s forced Jewish people to wear a gold star. Vaccine passports & mask mandates create discrimination against unvaxxed people who trust their immune systems to a virus that is 99% survivable.”
It was the latest instance of outlandish behavior from the Georgia Republican, resulting in increased pressure on GOP leaders to respond.
Rep. Brad Schneider, Illinois Democrat, said he will challenge GOP leaders to join a censure resolution that he is drafting in the wake of Ms. Greene’s comments.
“Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene continues to debase not only the memory of 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis, but all those who fought and died defending Democracy against Hitler and his evil,” he said. “It is shameful that the Republican Conference continues to let her define their party, and dangerous that they refuse to expel her.”
Jeff Miller, a GOP strategist and adviser to Mr. McCarthy, called out the congresswoman online.
“WTF is wrong with you? I think you need to pay a visit to the US Holocaust Museum,” tweeted Mr. Miller, a member of the museum’s council. “I’d be happy to arrange. Then maybe going forward you wouldn’t make anymore disgusting, ignorant and offensive tweets. If I’m wrong and you’re not ignorant about Holocaust … then you are disgusting.”
Ms. Greene wasn’t chastened and doubled down, using her Twitter account to spar with reporters and accuse them of being state media.
“If you care about people NOT being discriminated against or being treated unequally then you would use your platform to be against vaccine passports,” she tweeted. “Instead you are all in for this sick Socialism just like good little state run media.”
The congresswoman was, in effect, defending recent remarks she made comparing mask rules in the House chamber to Nazi measures.
“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,” Ms. Greene told the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody on his program.
Jewish groups and lawmakers condemned the congresswoman for comparing measures designed to mitigate a pandemic to those used by Nazis, saying it demeaned victims of the Holocaust.
“Equating mask wearing and vaccines to the Holocaust belittles the most significant human atrocities ever committed. We must all work together to educate our fellow Americans on the unthinkable horrors of the Holocaust,” tweeted Rep. Elise Stefanik, New York Republican and new chairwoman of the House GOP Conference.
Federal and state governments haven’t issued vaccine mandates, and the White House says it will let the private sector determine whether it wants to develop vaccine passports that let people show if they’re vaccinated.
A New York version is used at the New York Yankees’ games, for instance, to allow admission and determine where fans will sit.
The main use of vaccine mandates is on college campuses, with dozens of institutions requiring the shots ahead of the fall semester.
Ms. Greene tried to explain her tweet, saying she was comparing the passports to societal sorting and not the Holocaust itself.
Republicans elsewhere tried to avert their eyes.
“It’s embarrassing as a Georgian, it’s embarrassing as an American, it’s embarrassing as a Republican, to hear somebody try to spew that type of misinformation and just hatred,” Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan told CNN.
He said this is an inflection point for the GOP, which appears to be chasing “sugar highs.”
“This is the time for folks to stand up and say the right thing, say the honest thing and truly put leadership on display,” Mr. Duncan said.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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