Minnesota Republican Resigns After Sharing Photo Comparing COVID-19 Mask Mandate to Holocaust

At first, regional GOP leaders attempted to blame the post on a Facebook hack, later conceding that it was the work of a county GOP board member.

masks
Getty

Image via Getty/Kilito Chan

masks

After sharing an image on Facebook that preposterously compared a mask mandate to the treatment of Jewish people during the Holocaust, a GOP official in southern Minnesota has resigned.

Minnesota Republican Party Chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan said Tuesday that the image in question had been shared by a Wabasha County GOP board member, per a CBS Newsreport. Initially, the Wabasha County GOP had attempted to chalk the post up to a hack.

Given that Minnesota rabbis recently spoke out in favor of a mask mandate, comparing that mandate to the Holocaust feels especially disgusting. We ask the @MNGOP to tell Wabasha Republicans to stop using imagery like this. It betrays a total lack of both empathy and education. pic.twitter.com/xGMT3cUvvo

— Jewish Community Action (@JCA_MN) July 27, 2020

The image, seen above in a screenshot shared alongside an assessment of its disgustingness by Jewish Community Action, compared the state's protective mask mandate to the Holocaust-era use of the Star of David by way of likening those calling for masks to be utilized in the fight against COVID-19 to Nazi officers.

And while Carnahan claimed that Republicans do not support or condone "divisive and harmful posts or language" of this variety, this doesn't mark the first time GOP leaders have used the Holocaust as a comparison tactic amid the pandemic.

There have also been multiple instances of anti-maskers enacting violence against those carrying out the mandates, including at an NYC area Trader Joe's. As has been heavily discussed this week, two men who refused to wear protective masks assaulted employees at the store on July 14, with one man threatening to return to the location with a gun.

Latest in Life