Republican House leaders condemn Marjorie Taylor Greene's 'appalling' comparisons of vaccines and masks to Nazism

• Republican leadership condemned Marjorie Taylor Greene for comparing COVID-19 mitigation to Nazism.
• Greene has said mask and vaccination policies are like the persecution of Jews in the Holocaust.
• On Tuesday, House leader Kevin McCarthy called Greene's comments "wrong" and "appalling."

Republican House leadership and 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, said 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 also said 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 Minority 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 said 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 antisemitic 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.

Republicans have stopped short of calling for any punishment for Greene. But Rep. Brad Schneider, an Illinois Democrat, said he was drafting a resolution to censure Greene for her comments, Punchbowl News reported on Tuesday. The censure requires a simple majority to pass.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters that Greene had "once again" made an "outrageous and reprehensible comment," but declined to say whether Republican leadership should do anything to punish the congresswoman.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Texas Republican, called Greene's comparison "stupid and insulting to Holocaust survivors" and likened Greene's remarks to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calling US migrant detention facilities "concentration camps."

"WTF is wrong with you?" tweeted Jeff Miller, a Republican lobbyist and Trump-aligned donor. "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."

Ben Shapiro, a right-wing commentator, called Greene's comparison "demented nonsense."

The conservative commentator Bill Kristol said 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."

Following the official condemnation from leaders of her party, Greene doubled down on her comments in another series of tweets on Tuesday in which she called Democrats "reminiscent of the great tyrants of history."

The congresswoman has also singled out Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, one of two Muslim women in Congress, and accused her of being aligned with terrorists and being part of a "Jihad Squad." Greene has long spread Islamophobic ideas and has said there was "an Islamic invasion into our government" following Omar's election.