House Republicans denounce lawmaker for likening mask order to Nazi yellow star

Controversial US congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene doubles down on equating mask mandates with Nazis forcing Jews to wear yellow stars in war-era Germany, earning a stern rebuke from Republican leadership.

Greene, a freshman Republican from Georgia, tweets about a business making its employees who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus wear a vaccination logo on their name badge.

“Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazi’s [sic] forced Jewish people to wear a gold star,” Greene wrote.

“Vaccine passports & mask mandates create discrimination against unvaxxed people who trust their immune systems to a virus that is 99% survivable.”

Greene is a fierce defender of former US president Donald Trump and promotes his baseless claim that Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election.

US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Republican of Georgia) arrives for a House Republican caucus candidate forum to replace outgoing conference chair Rep. Liz Cheney (Republican of Wyoming) at the Capitol on May 13, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

Her five months in Congress have been repeatedly marked by controversy and rising frustration within her party over her extreme remarks.

But her recent comments linking mask rules to the Holocaust outraged some in her party, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who denounces her comments — but also accuses Democrats of antisemitism.

“Marjorie is wrong, and her intentional decision to compare the horrors of the Holocaust with wearing masks is appalling,” McCarthy says in a statement.

“Let me be clear: the House Republican Conference condemns this language,” he adds.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Republican of California) gives his assessment of the GOP’s performance in the election as he speaks with reporters at the Capitol in Washington, DC on Nov. 4, 2020. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

With increased violence against Jews in the United States in recent weeks, “antisemitism is on the rise in the Democrat Party and is completely ignored by Speaker Nancy Pelosi,” McCarthy says.

“Americans must stand together to defeat antisemitism and any attempt to diminish the history of the Holocaust.”

The controversy began Sunday when Greene, speaking to a conservative podcast, compared Pelosi’s decision to maintain mask rules for lawmakers on the House floor to Nazi actions against Jews.

“You know, we can look back at a time in history where people were told to wear a gold star, and they were definitely treated like second-class citizens, so much so that they were put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany,” Greene said.

“This is exactly the type of abuse that Nancy Pelosi is talking about.”

Greene, who insisted she said nothing wrong, received fierce criticism from both sides of the political aisle, with fellow House Republican Liz Cheney calling the comments “evil lunacy.”

Several Democrats have said Greene is unfit to serve in Congress.