The American Jewish Congress (AJC) rejected Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene‘s apology for likening House mask mandates to the Holocaust.
In an interview last month, Greene argued that lawmakers who refuse to wear masks are being treated the way Jews were treated during World War II.
Greene’s remarks were widely condemned. This week she visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and then issued an apology, saying that she regrets making the inappropriate comparison.
According to the AJC, however, her apology means nothing.
AJC Slams Greene
In a statement, AJC President Jack Rosen wrote that Greene “should find a different career” because “her values don’t align with what we expect out of our congresspeople.”
“There should be no place in American political dialogue for equating the extermination of six million Jews with life-saving medical intervention. This type of theater is not merely outrageous, it is dangerous: diminishing the atrocities committed by Nazis is tantamount to denial. The Holocaust is a not a stain that can or should be wiped clean, lest it happen again.”
#NotAProp Campaign
In response to Greene’s “persistent abuses of the memory of the Holocaust,” the AJC has launched #NotAProp, a social media campaign that will feature statements from prominent Holocaust survivors and highlight how inappropriate and offensive it is to downplay the Holocaust.
Holocaust survivor Frank Shatz, who escaped a Nazi concentration camp, joined the campaign and explained in a statement — which can be read below — why comparing mask mandates amid the coronavirus pandemic to the greatest crime in world history is deeply offensive and anti-Semitic.
Gosar Defends Greene
Though most Republican lawmakers — including GOP leaders — have condemned Greene for making the grotesque comparison, some have defended her against criticism.
In a Twitter message published Thursday, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona described the controversial congresswoman as an “American treasure.”
Gosar then accused the AJC of being part of the American left.
“She learned an important lesson recently: never apologize to the left. There is nothing an America First fighter can say or do to appease a mob acting in bad faith,” he stated.
Controversies Involving Greene
Since being elected to Congress in November 2020, Greene — who supported the QAnon movement in the past and spread far-right conspiracy theories on social media — has been involved in a number of high-profile controversies.
Most recently, she bizarrely suggested that investment company BlackRock buying up houses across the nation is “socialism” and alleged that President Joe Biden is part of this alleged conspiracy to turn the U.S. into a socialist country.
In response, Cenk Uygur, the founder of the progressive online news show The Young Turks, said that Greene “might literally be the dumbest person in America.”
