The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has condemned Rep. Hank Johnson (D–GA), a legislator who has previously made anti-Semitic remarks, for his disgusting and disturbing remarks while speaking at Friendship Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, in which he asserted that supporters of President Donald Trump are white racists and compared President Trump to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
In his remarks, Rep. Johnson said:
“Americans elected an authoritarian, an anti-immigrant, racist strongman to the nation’s highest office. Donald Trump and his ‘Make America Great Again’ followers who want to return American back to a time where white men and white privilege were unchallenged, and where minorities and women were in their place … Donald Trump supporters are … dying early … from alcoholism, drug overdoses, liver disease, or simply a broken heart caused by economic despair … Much like how Hitler took over the Nazi party, Trump has taken over the Republican party … Hitler was accepting of violence toward the achievement of political objectives. Trump encouraged violence against protesters at his rallies, and his messaging about Charlottesville, that there were bad people on both sides, sent a powerful message of approval to the far right racists in America … Americans, particularly black Americans, can’t afford to make that same mistake about the harm that could be done by a man named Hitler or a man named Trump” (Pam Key, ‘Dem Rep. Hank Johnson: Trump Is “an Anti-Immigrant, Racist Strongman” Like Hitler,’ Breitbart, January 2, 2019).
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “Hank Johnson has proven that he is not only capable of making idiotic statements –– like his assertion some years ago that the island of Guam is going to ‘tip over and capsize’ –– but also poisonously hateful statements, like his latest assertions about President Trump and his supporters.
“Indeed, in 2016, Rep. Johnson, addressing the ‘U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation’ [sic], called Jewish residents of Judea/Samaria ‘termites’ –– beating veteran black supremacist and anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan to using that repulsive word about Jews by over a year.
“We too have criticized President Trump’s Charlottesville statement, but that does not justify the appalling hatred and ignorance displayed by Rep. Johnson in his statements in Atlanta this week.
“Hitler’s Nazi Party emerged as the largest party in Germany and Hitler was appointed to head a coalition which he then was able to dominate and then alter or suspend basic laws in order to seize total power. As any honest observer should be able to acknowledge, none of this in the least equates with how President Trump became president after a proper, democratic election or how he has exercised power since then.
“It is quite simply disgusting and beyond the pale to label people who supported Donald Trump as being nothing other than repulsive racists and haters.
Especially as a child of holocaust survivors, I am compelled to state that it is a complete disgrace and the height of lunacy for Israel-hater Johnson to compare the pro-Jewish State of Israel president Trump, who has as orthodox Jewish daughter and son in law and Jewish grandchildren, to the world’s biggest murderer of 6,000,000 Jews. ZOA condemns Johnson and demands Cong. Johnson immediately apologize, recognize the absurdity of his Nazi analogy and retract his ugly phony propaganda statement.