‘Disgusting, ignorant, offensive’: Marjorie Taylor Greene condemned for new comparison of Covid vaccinations to Holocaust

Far-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has continued to compare Covid-19 vaccination policies and mask mandates to antisemitic Nazi abuse towards Jews.

After she defended her remarks claiming that wearing a mask is “exactly” the same type of abuse suffered during the genocide of millions of European Jews during World War II, she shared a story about a grocery store where employees will have a vaccination logo on their name badge, in the middle of a pandemic that has killed nearly 600,000 Americans.

“Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazi’s [sic] forced Jewish people to wear a gold star,” she wrote on 25 May. “Vaccine passports & mask mandates create discrimination against unvaxxed people who trust their immune systems to a virus that is 99% survivable.”

She also claimed on Monday that universities requiring vaccinations to attend in-person classes are using “Nazi practices”.

“This is exactly what I was saying about the gold star,” she said.

The Georgia congresswoman defended her posts, claiming that she “never compared” the policies to the Holocaust, “only the discrimination against Jews in early Nazi years”, despite the use of badges at concentration camps.

Her latest remarks follow her appearance on the podcast The Water Cooler with David Brody, where she called Nancy Pelosi “mentally ill” and compared the House speaker’s mask mandate for the floor of the House of Representatives to Nazis forcing Jews to wear a Star of David. Ms Greene said “this is exactly the type of abuse” she believes is taking place in Congress.

“This woman is mentally ill,” she said of the House speaker. “You know, 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.”

On Friday, she defended her comments on the mask mandate and again compared it to “what happened in Nazi Germany”, adding that “any rational Jewish person” would oppose US vaccination policies.

“I said nothing wrong,” she told Arizona 12 News. “And I think any rational Jewish person didn’t like what happened in Nazi Germany, and any rational Jewish person doesn’t like what’s happening with overbearing mask mandates and overbearing vaccine policies.”

“WTF is wrong with you?” wrote Jeff Miller, a prominent GOP strategist and Donald Trump supporter. “I think you need to pay a visit to the US Holocaust Museum. I’d be happy to arrange. Then maybe going forward you wouldn’t make anymore disgusting, ignorant and offensive tweets.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, faced with growing calls for weeks to address Ms Greene’s remarks and behaviour, said in a statement on Monday that “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,” he said in a statement. “Let me be clear: the House Republican Conference condemns this language.”

Her latest remarks follow a series of antisemitic attacks in the US, including physical attacks and vandalism at synagogues and Jewish centres.

The American Jewish Congress said “you can never compare health-related restrictions with yellow stars, gas chambers [and] other Nazi atrocities.”

“Such comparisons demean the Holocaust [and] contaminate American political speech,” the group said, calling for Ms Greene to “immediately retract and apologise.”

Several of her GOP colleagues have condemned her remarks. In a Twitter post sharing a video of Ms Greene’s interview, US House Rep Liz Cheney called Ms Greene’s comments “evil lunacy”.

“Absolute sickness,” said Republican US Rep Adam Kinzinger.

Asked by CNN host Anderson Cooper on Monday why GOP leadership and most rank-and-file Republican lawmakers largely remained silent as a “taxpayer-funded troll” continues her bigoted remarks, Democratic US Rep Steve Cohen said she is “playing to her base”.

“A lot of Republicans today have no experience in government and experience of history and trying to become social media stars and raise money that way, and that’s what they’re talking about,” he said.

CNN correspondent Donie O’Sullivan also pointed out that Ms Greene’s comments “fit the mold of what’s happening on far-right Facebook and Telegram forums: an effort to equate Democrats with Nazis.”

“Greene knows this stuff plays well,” he said.