In yet another display of her staggering ignorance, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has lately been insisting that pushes for wearing face masks (or getting vaccinated) to combat the spread of COVID-19 are “exactly the type of abuse” that was perpetrated by the Nazi regime. Obviously, there’s no logical connection there — Greene, who apparently carries a victim complex on par with Trump himself, is insisting that a mild inconvenience (in a society in which there are plenty of other behavioral requirements already in place!) is on par with Nazi terror. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has now condemned Greene’s remarks.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell tells me on MTG “Once again an outrageous and reprehensible comment.”
He did not comment further when asked if GOP should take further action against her.
— Lauren Fox (@FoxReports) May 25, 2021
McConnell told CNN reporter Lauren Fox that Greene’s Holocaust claim was “once again an outrageous and reprehensible comment” from the Georgia Congresswoman. At this point, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has also condemned Greene’s remarks, referring to the rhetoric as “appalling.” Greene, meanwhile, has doubled down. On Twitter just this Tuesday, Greene insisted that Democrats’ “attempts to shame, ostracize, and brand Americans who choose not to get vaccinated or wear a mask are reminiscent of the great tyrants of history who did the same to those who would not comply.”
4. Their attempts to shame, ostracize, and brand Americans who choose not to get vaccinated or wear a mask are reminiscent of the great tyrants of history who did the same to those who would not comply.
— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) May 25, 2021
Democratic leaders are not attempting to “brand Americans” who won’t “comply.” In the same way that schools and other places of general public interaction across America have long had basic public health guidelines like vaccine requirements, leaders (inside and outside of the Democratic Party) have simply sought to impose basic protections to keep people safe. What’s next — is Greene going to yell on Twitter about how mandates for restaurant employees to wash their hands at work are also “reminiscent” of Nazism? Where’s the line here? Is there any mild inconvenience that Greene won’t claim constitutes the destruction of America or something?
Although McConnell and McCarthy have condemned Greene’s remarks, there’s been little organized and substantive pushback from among Republicans against Greene. There’s a difference between issuing a public statement and taking tangible steps to hold Greene reasonably accountable for her actions. It fell to the House as a whole to vote her out of her committee assignments recently after her past expressions of support for the execution of prominent Democrats surfaced. (She’s distanced herself from those remarks, but they’re still serious.)
