michigan president Republican Party refused to apologize Wednesday for several social media posts linking Democratic-backed gun reform bills to the Holocaust, saying the Republican Party would not “run away” from its position or apologize.
The maelstrom began early Wednesday morning after the official accounts of the Michigan Republican Party published a photograph of wedding rings collected by Germans from Holocaust victims during World War II. The image includes a line of text that reads: “Before they collected all these wedding rings… they collected all the weapons,” an apparent mockery of democrats currently moving forward various gun reform bills in the Michigan Legislature. One would expand background checks for gun purchases and another would require gun owners to safely store firearms at home when children are present.
Lawmakers are also trying to enact a “red flag” law that would allow a judge to temporarily limit access to guns for those deemed to be at higher risk of harming themselves or others.
The messages drew immediate pushback from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. But Kristina Karamo, chair of the Michigan Republican Party, launched a fierce defense of the messages before holding a bizarre press conference in which he said people get “too offended.”
“We are a different Republican Party,” said Karamo, according to The Detroit News. “We are not the Republican Party that apologizes and runs away from our positions. It’s one of the reasons the Republican Party has been kicked in the teeth in the last three cycles. Because it has been a party that is always apologizing. We’re done.
“What surprises me is that people are uncomfortable making comparisons between historical events and current events,” he added. “We love the phrase that history repeats itself. But yet when we point to the story, in a way that’s controversial. I will not tolerate that. I won’t apologize for that.
Karamo, a election denier who lost a race to become Michigan secretary of state last year, went on to debate Rabbi Asher Lopatin, executive director of the Council on Jewish Community Relations, who was in the audience.
“This shows a lack of sensitivity that we really have in our political system,” he said at the event. “When you refer to the Holocaust, you have to realize that it is such a tender, sensitive and hurtful subject for the Jewish people.”
Michigan lawmakers joined the firestorm.
“Comparing gun safety measures to the mass extermination of 6 million people is hateful and ignorant, coming from party leaders who are clueless and cater to the fringes,” said Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich. ) wrote On twitter. “Delete it, apologize, and figure out what kind of party you want to be.”
“This @MIGOP tweet is absolutely inappropriate and offensive and must be removed immediately,” wrote Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition.
Michigan Republican Party accounts duplicate in the tweet later Wednesday, saying that “the only thing vile is that @MichiganDems is increasingly looking to disarm citizens.”
