Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene apologized Monday for comparing mask mandates to the Holocaust, shortly after taking a tour of the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.
The Georgia Republican had sparked outrage last month, and Democratic preparations for a condemnation resolution, by criticizing enforcement of mask mandates as dividing and humiliating certain people and comparing that to the yellow stars the Nazis made European Jews wear during the years of World War II.
“I have made a mistake and it’s really bothered me for a couple of weeks now, and so I definitely want to own it,” Ms. Taylor-Greene said outside of Congress on Monday. “I wanted to say that I know that words that I’ve stated were hurtful and for that I am very sorry.”
“The horrors of the Holocaust are something that some people don’t even believe happened, and some people deny, but there is no comparison to the Holocaust,” she continued. “There are words that I have said and remarks that I have made that I know are offensive, and for that, I want to apologize.”
Ms. Taylor-Greene had visited the museum for a private tour earlier in the day, according to a report in Newsweek.
“We welcomed her visit as we do all members of Congress,” Andrew Hollinger, the museum’s director of communications, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The original comparison from Ms. Taylor-Greene came on “The Water Cooler” show, discussing plans to segregate House members who didn’t wear masks or get the vaccine from their colleagues.
“You know, we can look back in a time in history where people were told to wear a gold star and they were definitely treated as second-class citizens, so much so that they were put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany,” she said.
She made a further comparison on Twitter a few days later.
“Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazis forced Jewish people to wear a gold star,” she wrote.
