'Hateful and ignorant': Jewish groups rip Michigan GOP for comparing gun safety bills to the Holocaust

23 March 2023

In mid-March, the Michigan State Legislature passed a package of gun safety measures, and Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has said that she will sign them into law — much to the dismay of far-right MAGA Republicans in the state, including Michigan GOP Chair Kristina Karamo.

The Michigan GOP, under Karamo's leadership, responded to the bills by comparing them to the Holocaust, and Jewish groups are calling out their rhetoric as wildly inappropriate.

In posts on Twitter and Facebook attacking the bills, the Michigan GOP showed an image that, according to the Associated Press (AP), appeared to be taken from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), in a March 22 tweet, wrote, "Using the Holocaust as a way to score cheap political points in the debate over gun control is unacceptable and trivializes the memory of millions murdered by the Nazis." And Matt Brooks, chief executive of the Republican Jewish Coalition, slammed the Michigan GOP's use of a Holocaust-related image as "absolutely inappropriate and offensive" and called for the image to be "taken down immediately."

Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Michigan), who is Jewish, tweeted, "Comparing gun safety measures to the mass extermination of 6 million people is hateful and ignorant, and it comes from party leaders who are out of ideas and catering to the fringe of the fringe." Slotkin is seeking the Democratic nomination in Michigan's 2024 U.S. Senate race and is running for the seat presently occupied by four-term Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who is retiring.

Slotkin and various Jewish groups were by no means the one ones who slammed the Michigan GOP for their Holocaust reference. Former MSNBC host and liberal firebrand Keith Olbermann, on March 22, tweeted, "Delete this. Apart from its obvious grotesqueness you seem to have forgotten you're the anti-freedom, anti-individual heritage party."

Karamo — a far-right conspiracy theorist, Donald Trump supporter, election denialist, anti-vaxxer and QAnon ally — doubled down on the Michigan GOP's use of a Holocaust image and said it "stands by our statement." Karamo added that the Democratic Party "currently fights to murder unborn children" and wants to "disarm us" with gun safety measures.

Karamo was among the many MAGA Republicans who unsuccessfully campaigned on the Big Lie in the 2022 midterms, falsely claiming that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump in her state — a lie that has been repeatedly and thoroughly debunked. But Karamo's far-right challenge to incumbent Democratic Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson did not go well; Benson was reelected by 14 percent. Karamo, however, never conceded.

The MAGA movement also suffered a major disappointment in Michigan in 2022 when Whitmer was reelected and defeated far-right Republican challenger Tudor Dixon by 11 percent. But despite those losses, the Michigan GOP doubled down on its MAGA agenda by choosing Karamo as its leader.

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