Marjorie Taylor Greene defends comparing mask mandate to Holocaust as Republican colleagues turn on her

The American Jewish Congress has asked Ms Greene to ‘immediately retract and apologise’

House Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene is facing a backlash that includes colleagues from her own party after she compared being required to wear a mask to the Holocaust.

Ms Greene made the statement last week while also calling House speaker Nancy Pelosi “mentally ill” for trying to enforce mask mandates, leading to widespread criticism from both other politicians and Jewish groups.

The Georgia congresswoman was responding after Ms Pelosi announced that the mask requirement on the House floor would remain in place until all members are vaccinated.

In an interview with Real America’s Voice show The Water Cooler on Thursday, Ms Greene had compared the decision to the steps taken by the Nazis during the Holocaust, and on Friday she doubled down by insisting that “any rational Jewish person” would also oppose the “overbearing” mask mandates.

She had said: “We can look back at a time in history when people were told to wear a gold star, and ... they were put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany.” She added: “This is exactly the type of abuse that Nancy Pelosi is talking about.”

Michigan Republican representative Peter Meijer criticised the comments on CNN on Sunday, saying: “Any comparisons to the Holocaust, it’s beyond reprehensible. This is, I don’t even have words to describe how disappointing it is to see this hyperbolic speech that frankly amps up and plays into a lot of the antisemitism that we’ve been seeing in our society today, vicious attacks on the streets of New York and in Los Angeles that should be, and I do condemn that in the strongest terms. There’s no excuse for that.”

On Friday, Ms Greene defended her comments on the mask mandate and again compared it to “what happened in Nazi Germany”.

She told Arizona 12 News: “I said nothing wrong. And I think any rational Jewish person didn’t like what happened in Nazi Germany, and any rational Jewish person doesn’t like what’s happening with overbearing mask mandates and overbearing vaccine policies.”

Meanwhile, the American Jewish Congress tweeted saying: “You can never compare health-related restrictions with yellow stars, gas chambers & other Nazi atrocities. Such comparisons demean the Holocaust & contaminate American political speech.” They have asked Ms Greene to “immediately retract and apologise.”

Ms Greene is one of seven Republican lawmakers who were issued a warning for not wearing a mask on the House floor. The others were Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Chip Roy and Louie Gohmert of Texas, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Bob Good of Virginia and Mary Miller of Illinois.

Republican representative from Wyoming Liz Cheney also blasted Ms Greene for her comments. She tweeted a clip to Ms Greene’s interview and called it “evil lunacy.”

Ms Greene had in February this year also been widely criticised for posting a transphobic sign outside her office, directly across the hall from another lawmaker who has a trans child.

There is also a petition going around asking for Ms Greene to be expelled from Congress.