Rep. Thomas Massie Deletes Tweet Comparing Vaccine Mandates To Holocaust

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) has deleted a tweet comparing vaccine mandates to concentration camp prisoners’ identification numbers.

After its deletion, Twitter users began circulating screenshots of the original tweet, which included a black-and-white photo of a fist with numbers tattooed on its wrist.

The caption read: “If you have to carry a card on you to gain access to a restaurant, venue of an event in your country… that’s no longer a free country.”

Despite what Massie’s tweet suggests, the state of Kentucky does not require businesses to ask customers for proof of vaccination upon entry. However, private workplaces may require proof of vaccination from employees.

Andrew Zirkle, who worked as an intern for Massie’s office, tweeted on Thursday about the Congressman’s action. “The tweet that Congressman Massie posted last night, in which he compared vaccine passports to the Holocaust, was insensitive to not only survivors of the Holocaust, but the millions who perished as a result,” he wrote. “The anti-Semitic nature of the post is beyond apology, and as a result, I cannot in good conscience continue at my current position.”

The Kentucky Democratic Party also issued a statement, condemning Massie’s remarks. “Denigrating the victims and survivors of the Holocaust just to score cheap political points is ignorant, shameful, and has no place in our politics or American society,” the statement read. “Trying to quietly delete his tweet without apologizing for his ignorant and offensive behavior? That’s rock bottom pathetic.”

Massie seems to be following in the footsteps of other controversial GOP lawmakers, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), who claimed vaccine passports are “just like the Nazi’s forced Jewish people to wear a gold star.”

Article by Elizabeth Letsou