Marjorie Taylor Greene Apologizes For Comparing House Mask Rules To Treatment Of Jews During Holocaust
[guest post by Dana]
I don’t know. On one hand, good for her acknowledging she was wrong, and offering an apology. But on the other hand, the woman is 47 years old! She’s just now learning what an incomparable horror the Holocaust was?? At the very least, it would seem that this is a rather serious indictment on Georgia’s public schools:
Last month, QAnon believer and freshman GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared on a conservative podcast, where she compared the COVID-19 safety protocols put in place by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi—members must continue to wear masks on the chamber floor—to the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. On Monday, Greene asked for forgiveness during a press conference she held after a visit to the Holocaust Museum, and began by reminding the assembled reporters that she is “very much a normal person.” “I think it’s important for me to always be transparent and honest,” Greene said, adding that her late father “taught me some great things.”
“And one of the best lessons that my father always taught me was when you make a mistake, you should own it,” Greene continued. “And I have made a mistake and it’s really bothered me for a couple of weeks now. So I definitely want to own it. This afternoon, I visited the Holocaust Museum. The Holocaust is—there’s nothing comparable. It happened, you know, over 6 million Jewish people were murdered. More than that, there were not just Jewish people, Black people, Christians, children, people that the Nazis didn’t believe were good enough, perfect enough. The horrors of the Holocaust are something that some people don’t even believe happened, that some people deny, but there is no comparison to the Holocaust. There are words that I have said, remarks that I’ve made, that I know are offensive. And for that I want to apologize.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene: “I have made a mistake… this afternoon I visited the Holocaust Museum. The Holocaust is- there’s nothing comparable to it.” pic.twitter.com/skrF6YyC3u
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) June 14, 2021
Here’s the thing: I have trouble understanding how a U.S. Representative who graduated from a state university never fully comprehended the scope and impact of the Holocaust until age 47.
Nonetheless, the timing of MTG’s statement is coincidental given that she is facing a censure resolution. She and Rep. Omar, that is. The latter coincidentally issued her own “clarification” for her anti-Semitic comments last week:
Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar will be the target of dueling resolutions expected to be filed this week admonishing them for remarks that critics said were antisemitic or inappropriate.
Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., is expected to unveil a resolution Wednesday that would censure Greene, of Georgia, for remarks last month comparing House mask rules to the Holocaust.
…
Separately, Schneider led a group of House Democrats last week who publicly criticized fellow Democrat Omar, of Minnesota, accusing her of giving “cover” to terrorists and suggesting her remarks reflect a “deep-seated prejudice.”
Omar later clarified her comments in which she appeared to equate the U.S. and Israel with Hamas and the Taliban. Schneider said afterward that he was satisfied with her response.
The clarification by Omar, however, didn’t satisfy Republicans, who have frequently sought to cast her as indicative of a deeper antisemitic sentiment in the Democratic Party.
Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., is leading an effort to craft resolution to censure Omar. It will also censure other members of the so-called squad, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., for “defending terrorist organizations” and blames the trio for recent antisemitic attacks in the U.S., according to a Banks spokesman…
Omar, Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib, a Palestinian American, have all made statements criticizing the Israeli government and U.S. support, which have been met with criticism. In 2019, the House voted to condemn antisemitism in response to statements made by Omar, but the resolution did not name her…
Your elected officials at work.
–Dana
Yeah, these aren’t America’s best and brightest.
Dana (fd537d) — 6/14/2021 @ 10:20 pmAs someone roughly the same age as her, I wonder how she managed not to see Schindler’s List. I didn’t realize it was actually possible to have NOT seen the movie as a young adult in the mid 90s. Did she also somehow miss Pulp Fiction and Forrest Gump?
OK, more seriously, we do a lousy job of teaching WWII (really the 20th C at all and probably most history other than American exploration/colonization up to the Constitution and then the Civil War). I think probably most people learn/ed formally about it reading Anne Frank in the 8th grade. And most of the rest they may have touched briefly on in 11th grade US history but any other info they probably basically absorb from the culture if they aren’t a history person in college. (My own personal knowledge is fairly experiential, I’ve been to a lot of WWII era sites)
I’m glad she did some research and has realized (and said) that she was wrong.
Nic (896fdf) — 6/14/2021 @ 11:56 pmDid this come about in your days or in the days of your forefathers?
Tell your children about it, and your children to their children, and their children to another generation.
Joel 1-3
Inscribed at the entrance to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
Never forget.
Echo (89ce42) — 6/15/2021 @ 12:34 amTheir are many holocausts thru out history like the armenian holocaust and the native american holocaust. Many more get little attention today.
asset (00a591) — 6/15/2021 @ 1:19 amNic, to your point: MTG, by her own admission, visited Auschwitz while in high school, so the whole thing makes me suspicious that’s is just a desperate (and dishonest) come-to-Jesus moment in an effort to excuse her bad behavior and save herself from censure.
Dana (fd537d) — 6/15/2021 @ 3:31 amI’ll note that her Jewish space laser comment is still out there, unretracted, as so many of her nutty QAnon-friendly remarks are. IMO, she’s more concerned about her funding drying up, not censure or other blowback.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 6/15/2021 @ 3:37 amBooooosh killed Americas best and brightest.
mg (8cbc69) — 6/15/2021 @ 3:53 amAw, fer …. She’s a brainless hill hoyden* who’d be constantly getting fired from her job as a truck stop waitress if her daddy hadn’t left her a flourishing business and a husband to run it. She didn’t know what she said, she still doesn’t, and she only has a nebulous idea why she should take it back.
*Think female Ernest T. Bass.
nk (1d9030) — 6/15/2021 @ 4:35 amGood for her for finally admitting that what every sane person knows to be true is true. I hope she gets enough positive reinforcement for this that she moves on from some of her other nutso ideas.
Time123 (f5cf77) — 6/15/2021 @ 5:30 amShe;s not claiming she didn’t know the scope of it. She’s claiming she didn’t understand it emotionally – that there’s nothing comparable. And that not be true. She’s looking for an excuse for waiting a couple of weeks.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 6/15/2021 @ 5:54 am6.
Well, she says it took her a couple of weeks to follow her father’s advice.
There are other things for which she hasn’t. Maybe because they can;t be characterized as mistakes.
Here, the mistake she admits to is making a very bad argument. The other things are more like factoids.
Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c) — 6/15/2021 @ 5:58 amBefore politics, her passion was Crossfit. She has no education because she has no brains to absorb it. What she has is money and time.
nk (1d9030) — 6/15/2021 @ 6:31 amThere’s a lot of those people up there. People with money and time who take up politics. Johnson and Tuberville, and the Kennedy clan, for a couple of examples. And then there are their counterparts, like Pelosi and McCarthy, and Lkiiz Cheney, who practically suckled politics with their mother’s milk.
nk (1d9030) — 6/15/2021 @ 6:36 amHeh! How did that happen? *Liz* Cheney.
nk (1d9030) — 6/15/2021 @ 6:38 amAnd who was that black retired neurosurgeon who ran in the Republican primary in 2016? I (seriously) forget his name. Trump gave him some cabinet appointment afterwards.
nk (1d9030) — 6/15/2021 @ 6:41 amThe job of a representative is simple: be the advocate for their district in the halls of power. Help constituents, be informed by their opinions, and relay the goings-on of government back to the district.
What is NOT their job is to be a grandstanding ideologue. Yet we see this increasing on the Right and Left, as the “base” (i.e. wingnuts) of each party apply a national litmus test to local representatives. And so you see Congresspeople who are poison to their own district, constantly stepping on the toes of others rather than convincing them to support solutions to the district’s problems.
And this is what each base wants more of.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 6/15/2021 @ 7:33 amShe didn’t know what she said, she still doesn’t
Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Deliverance). Her district has a history of sending up loons.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 6/15/2021 @ 7:39 amThere’s a lot of militant ignorance these days.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 6/15/2021 @ 7:41 amI can’t understand how anyone believes and trusts her apology tour.
Hoi Polloi (ade50d) — 6/15/2021 @ 7:48 amOn behalf of my grandparents who died in Treblinka, I accept her apology.
Fred (ffa60f) — 6/15/2021 @ 7:48 amOT: Which group will be the first allowed to enter the US after Covid?
1. Canadians
2. Europeans
3. Central Americans claiming asylum
Answer here
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 6/15/2021 @ 7:55 amCentral Americans seeking asylum are most likely to become future Democrat party voters, so I’m going with #3.
Hoi Polloi (ade50d) — 6/15/2021 @ 8:22 amMTG didn’t walk back her comparison of the Democratic Party to the Nazis (and doubled down on it), so her “apology” is disingenuous at best. Nothing like an apology made with a gun at your head.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 6/15/2021 @ 9:01 amAn intelligent and good-humored person such as most of this brilliant commenteriat, would have objected to the mask-wearing in an entirely different manner:
And then stayed entirely mum and let others figure out for themselves what kind of years she meant. 😉
nk (1d9030) — 6/15/2021 @ 9:36 am‘Sideshow Bob’ has a better haircut.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 6/15/2021 @ 10:26 amThese apologies never seem to be worth doing. Whoever likes MTG doesn’t care and the people who don’t will do this on the one hand it’s good but on the other it’s inauthentic thing. This is also why the calls for politicians to “just admit their mistake” ring hollow. The number of people who actually want public figures to admit a mistake and then will move on is vanishingly small.
frosty (853fac) — 6/15/2021 @ 10:44 amI didn’t watch the video but there is nothing in what you quoted that says she didn’t understand or comprehend the scope.
Also
Dana, do you have anything that supports this assessment? Is that somewhere in the video or link you posted and you just didn’t quote it in the post? I could be missing it but it sounds like you’ve read a lot into the situation. On the other hand, southerners and their bad education and general stupidity am I right?
frosty (853fac) — 6/15/2021 @ 10:53 am@Dana@5 Well she’s just being disingenuous then.
Nic (896fdf) — 6/15/2021 @ 11:06 amAt the very least, it would seem that this is a rather serious indictment on Georgia’s public schools
More a ‘serious indictment’ of the conservative powers that be:
“Prominent Republicans who supported Greene in her candidacy included U.S. representatives Jim Jordan of Ohio, Andy Biggs of Arizona, and Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows. Meadows’s wife, Debbie Meadows, is the executive director of RightWomen Pac, which endorsed Greene and contributed $17,500 to her primary campaign. Other donors include Barb Van Andel-Gaby, the chair of board of the Heritage Foundation, and attorney L. Lin Wood, who later promoted conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election. Greene also received support from the House Freedom Fund, a political action committee and the campaign fundraising arm of the House Freedom Caucus. The Georgia Republican Party contributed $5,220 to her campaign treasury on March 2, 2020.” -source, wiki.germanjewshelpedelecvtHitlertoo.omg.org
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 6/15/2021 @ 11:07 amFrosty, My comment in number nine was sincere. I’m not giving her a pass, but my hope at more improvement is sincere.
Time123 (f5cf77) — 6/15/2021 @ 11:16 amIt seems like the performative histrionics on MTG’s part exceeded her contrition. Her base of support in her congressional district would probably get upset if there was more of the latter. Better late than never though. She may be 47, but there is still time change for the better.
HCI (92ea66) — 6/16/2021 @ 12:57 pmMaybe she was saying…. her mistake was the visit itself
steveg (ebe7c1) — 6/17/2021 @ 2:26 pm