‘Horrific tweet’: Rep. Massie faces backlash for comparing vaccine mandates to Holocaust
Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie deleted a tweet on Wednesday night comparing vaccine mandates to the genocide of European Jews during the second World War.
“If you have to carry a card on you to gain access to a restaurant, venue or an event in your own country, that’s no longer a free country,” read a graphic on Massie’s Twitter account, according to a screen shot first identified by a CNN reporter.
The graphic included an image of a closed fist with a six digit number tattooed on a person’s wrist. Such serial numbers were tattooed on concentration camp prisoners in captivity.
The backlash was swift and extended nationally.
Rabbi Shlomo Litvin, a Jewish leader in Lexington, described Massie’s tweet as “horrific.”
“This comparison is offensive, it’s ahistorical & amoral,” he said in a statement. “This shameful tweet shows tremendous ignorance of public policy, history, and a horrible lack of judgment. While we are relieved the congressman deleted the ill-thought-out tweet, such comments must be repudiated.”
Litvin said he has reached out to Massie’s office to ask for an opportunity to educate him on the history of the Holocaust.
“While the Congressman’s office has refused to speak to Jewish leaders repeatedly in the past, we continue to hope for more representation and communication in the future. Our community deserves it,” Litvin said.
Massie has not acknowledged the deleted tweet on Twitter, continuing to post on the social media platform throughout Thursday.
He posted an article alleging the Center for Disease Control and Prevention are deceiving people into thinking those who are vaccinated have a greater degree of protection than those who have been previously infected.
Massie also doubled-down on an assertion made Wednesday that non-consensual forced vaccinations is a form of “violence.”
“The authoritarians are disputing whether people’s rights are being violated and whether people are being forced or coerced into taking the vaccine, but they are not saying they would oppose these things if they were happening,” Massie wrote on Thursday.
Some private businesses have instituted Covid-19 vaccine requirements for their employees.
Kentucky’s Bellarmine University and Centre College announced this week that all staff and students must be fully vaccinated within 45 days in order to continue on campus.
Transylvania University has also announced a vaccine requirement for students and employees.
This story was originally published August 26, 2021 at 1:48 PM.
