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- Republican House leadership condemned Marjorie Taylor Greene for comparing COVID-19 mitigation to Nazism.
- Greene has argued that mask mandates and vaccination policies are like the persecution of Jews in the Holocaust.
- House leader Kevin McCarthy issued a statement on Tuesday calling Greene's comments "wrong" and "appalling."
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Republican House leadership and several other prominent conservatives condemned GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for repeatedly comparing COVID-19 mitigation to Nazism.
Greene, a far-right freshman member from Georgia who's promoted a slew of conspiracy theories, argued that the government and private companies are discriminating against those who haven't received the COVID-19 vaccine in the same way Nazis persecuted Jews in the Holocaust.
"Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazi's forced Jewish people to wear a gold star," Greene tweeted on Tuesday morning. "Vaccine passports & mask mandates create discrimination against unvaxxed people who trust their immune systems to a virus that is 99% survivable."
Greene argued on a podcast last week that the House mask mandate is "exactly the type of abuse" Nazis committed against Jews.
Amid mounting pressure on Republicans to condemn Greene's remarks, House leader Kevin McCarthy issued a statement on Tuesday calling Greene's comments "wrong" and "appalling."
"Marjorie is wrong, and her intentional decision to compare the horrors of the Holocaust with wearing masks is appalling," McCarthy said in his statement. "Let me be clear: the House Republican Conference condemns this language."
McCarthy also claimed that "anti-Semitism is on the rise in the Democrat Party." This comes as some Democratic lawmakers have pushed back on US-Israel policy following the worst violence between Israel and Hamas in years. Amid the escalation in the Middle East, there have been anti-Semitic attacks on Jews in the US.
Minority Whip Steve Scalise put out a similar statement criticizing Greene's remarks and attacking Democrats. A handful of other prominent Republican lawmakers and conservative pundits also condemned Greene's comments.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Texas Republican, called Greene's comparison "stupid and insulting to Holocaust survivors" and also attempted to spread blame by likening Greene's remarks to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calling of US migrant detention facilities "concentration camps."
"WTF is wrong with you?" Republican lobbyist and Trump-aligned donor Jeff Miller tweeted. "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."
He added, "If I'm wrong and you're not ignorant about Holocaust..then you are disgusting."
Right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro called Greene's comparison "demented nonsense."
Conservative commentator Bill Kristol argued that Greene's remarks could provoke more anti-government violence.
"The comparison of U.S. government policies to the Nazis' isn't just distasteful. It's dangerous," Kristol tweeted on Tuesday. "If the comparison is legitimate, then violent resistance is justified. The rhetoric of @mtgreenee, and its indulgence by the GOP, excuses January 6th and invites future January 6ths."