Bachmann Compares Debt to Holocaust on Day Before Holocaust Remembrance Day
Listed in: Other Domestic Policy, NJDC News, Press Releases
WASHINGTON, DC- The National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) today condemned Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) comments at a partisan gathering in New Hampshire yesterday—the day before Holocaust Remembrance Day—in which she astonishingly tied America’s debt to the killing of six million Jews in the Holocaust. According to Politico, Bachmann “invoked the Holocaust Saturday morning as she described the tax burden that America’s next generation will face unless action is taken to reduce federal spending and the national debt.” Politico added that Bachmann “tied the loss of ‘economic liberty’ that Americans face today to the systematic killing of six million European Jews. ‘We are seeing eclipsed in front of our eyes a similar death and a similar taking away,’ Bachmann said. ‘It is this disenfranchisement that I think we have to answer to.’”
“It is astonishing and offensive in the extreme that Representative Bachmann—on the very weekend that we pause to remember the Holocaust—would choose to diminish the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust through such a comparison,” said David A. Harris, President and CEO of the NJDC. “Invoking the Holocaust when discussing domestic U.S. policy of course diminishes the memory of the Holocaust, and there is just no place for it.
“As we have unfortunately been pressed to say time and time again, invoking the Holocaust to make a political point is never acceptable—period. It is even more painful on this weekend, as we pause to remember the Shoah. Representative Bachmann should apologize for this rhetoric and cease and desist from using it ever again.”
Through candidate pledges foreswearing abusive Holocaust rhetoric and media monitoring, the National Jewish Democratic Council has vigilantly worked to press candidates and elected officials to step away from abusive Holocaust rhetoric in civic discourse. More information about NJDC’s efforts can be found here.
