The Republican Party of Wabasha County, Minnesota, is in very hot water after posting a meme on their official Facebook page comparing wearing a protective mask to the yellow Star of David insignia Jews were forced to display on their clothing in Nazi Germany.
KARE11 reports:
“A screenshot from what appears to be the Republican Party of Wabasha County MN Facebook page shows an image of a Nazi officer telling a prisoner to wear a star that was worn in concentration camps. It seems to be a response to the COVID-19 mask mandate in the state of Minnesota.
“The image drew responses from different entities including, Minnesota GOP chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan and Jewish Community Action from St. Paul.”
According to Carnahan, the group’s page was “hacked,” so they deactivated it:
This post was brought to @mngop‘s attention today. Immediately we reached out to the Wabasha board. They believe this was a hack and are removing their FB page immediately. Our party does not support/condone divisive and harmful posts or language of this nature. https://t.co/AbufDMXA45
— Jennifer Carnahan (@jkcarnah) July 28, 2020
Jewish Community Action also weighed in on the posting from the Wabasha County GOP:
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
But not everyone was buying the “hack” excuse offered by the Minnesota GOP:
“Our party does not support/condone divisive and harmful posts or language of this nature.”
Lol, that’s your party’s entire platform. This wasn’t a hack. You’re a hack.
— Brandon Kennedy (@ExtraPaleMale) July 28, 2020
Cannot believe that’s the excuse you gave. There were many other posts on the page of a similar style. Also who hacks a page with 220 followers and then uses messaging that can easily be seen as perfectly on-brand???
— Libby Parker (@libbygparker) July 28, 2020
“Hacked” = mad dash to delete posts
Sounds like something they learned from the chair herself as you have been known to delete tweets and content quite often. Guess you’ve been hacked too right?
— Masking Mom Mel (@Mellemo) July 28, 2020
I love that you make an excuse for it being posted and then post it again instead of taking it down, tsk, tsk, this is bad, will you just look at this… we WOULD NEVER POST THIS while you post it.
Makes total sense, for a racist.— Patricia Brumitt (@trishabrumi) July 28, 2020
“hacked” is the new, “Oopsie, we got caught being horrible bigots.”
— AngryMongoAff (@AngryMongoAFF) July 28, 2020
Could it be any clearer that Republicans are now saying the quiet part out loud and even shouting it from the damn rooftops?!