'SO DISTURBING'
Outrage as Republican lawmaker compares lockdown laws to Nazi concentration camps
A LAWMAKER has come under fire for comparing nonessential workers who have been asked to stay home to Jews in Nazi Germany.
Heather Scott, a state representative in , said during what’s happening across the country is what happened in the Third Reich .
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“I mean, that’s no different than , where you had government telling people, ‘You are an essential worker or a nonessential worker,’ and the nonessential workers got put on a train,” Scott told podcaster Jess Fields.
In Nazi Germany, trains were used during the to transport Jews and others to concentration camps.
Scott also referred to as “Little Hitler” and questioned his authority, .
“You can't take away people's lives and property without compensation, and that's exactly what he would be doing. I mean, they are already calling him Little Hitler — Gov. Little Hitler.”
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"This is, people will start educating others that this is life, liberty and pursuit of happiness,” she said.
“I mean, to act as a dictator when there, there is, the perceived emergency is over, you know, maybe he made a mistake, maybe not, but you can’t take away people’s lives and property without compensation and that’s exactly what he would be doing."
Little is one of dozens of governors who have implemented stay-at-home restrictions to prevent the spread of the , which Scott compared to the flu.
On Wednesday, Little — which sparked anger among those who think the restrictions are trampling their freedom.
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Little lightened some restrictions, so nonessential businesses could do curbside service.
He said such businesses should prepare to reopen on May 1, as long as they , like social distancing and providing workers with protective gear.
“Idaho will be better positioned for a strong economic comeback because we are making difficult changes in how we live and work in the short-term,” Little said in a statement.
“The statewide stay-home order is working to flatten the curve and slow the spread of coronavirus in Idaho, but the science tells us if you don’t time these measures right then we could worsen the outcome for citizens’ health and the economy weeks or months down the road.”
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On Friday, more than 1,000 people defied Idaho’s stay-at-home orders and .
Most people at the protest were standing shoulder-to-shoulder and not wearing masks.
Some carried signs claiming the coronavirus is a hoax, while others held signs with slogans like, “All workers are essential” and “Freedom not fear.”
State Rep. Scott said: “I think people will start educating others, and people will be more and more vocal until they will say, 'Enough of this', and put the pressure - hopefully political pressure - on him. That's what I would hope for.”
“We have real men in Idaho. We have some real men...we've got real men that know their rights and God-fearing men.”
She also encouraged her constituents in an official newsletter sent out earlier this month to “push back” against Little’s “edict,” reported.
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“It is not the role of government in a free society to tell us what we can and cannot do,” she said. “This is not going to end until we, as citizens, push back.”
Scott has been criticized for her remarks, including from Rabbi Tamar Malino, of Temple Beth Shalom.
“Mass murder and genocide is not the same thing as deciding which businesses should essentially stay open and which should stay closed,” Malino said.
The president of Idaho’s Bonner County Human Rights Task Force told the news outlet in an email: “It makes my heart heavy to hear a comment from an elected official that shows such deep disregard and lack of respect for what the Jewish people experienced during the time of the Holocaust.”
“It also shows an extreme ignorance of history,” president Brenda Hammond said.
“Her words will be especially hard for members of our community whose own relatives were put on those trains. Not to mention the few Holocaust survivors we are still privileged to have living among us.”
The state’s said: “This extreme display of ignorance and lack of respect in Rep. Scott's recent comments regarding Idaho's stay-at-order cannot be overstated.”
One of Scott: "Maybe we need to send her to a concentration camp to learn about the difference between the two. Staying at home saves lives concentration camps killed 6 million people. Including my family."
, Scott called the Spokesman-Review’s news report on her remarks a “hit piece.”
“It’s unfortunate, disingenuous and a real disservice to the public that biased local and national media continue to twist and turn facts away from their original intent and into their on-going war of hate towards conservatives and Americans in general,” she wrote.
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She said her “recent analogies are poignant and relative to our times. While human lives are certainly more valuable than a business, we cannot underestimate nor ignore that our businesses are the life blood of the citizens who own them, the communities they are in and to the customers they serve.”
Scott when she posted a photo of herself posing with a Confederate flag, and was again criticized years later for telling a female lawmaker that women could only advance in the state Legislature by performing sexual acts.
As of Monday morning, Idaho had more than 1,600 cases of the coronavirus with 44 deaths.
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