GOP Lawmaker Pilloried for ‘Racist and Bigoted’ Comparison of ‘Innocent Palestinian Civilians’ to Nazis

C-SPAN

Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) received fierce backlash over a floor speech in which he equated Palestinian civilians with Nazis.

“I think when we look at this as a whole, I would encourage the other side to not so lightly throw around the idea of ‘innocent Palestinian civilians,’ as is frequently said,” Mast stated on Wednesday. “I don’t think we would so lightly throw around the term ‘innocent Nazi civilians’ during World War II.”

Later in his speech, he claimed that “there are very few innocent Palestinian civilians.”

Israel has been carrying out strikes in Gaza since Hamas militants conducted terrorist attacks in which they killed 1,400 and abducted more than 200. Hamas-controlled Gaza has a population of 2.3 million, roughly half of whom are children. There have been a handful of calls for a ceasefire in the U.S. media that have been dismissed out of hand.

Mast has made himself a visible defender of Israel. Last month, he donned an Israel Defense Forces uniform he wore when he volunteered with Israel’s military.

The reaction to Mast’s comments was swift, with Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) slamming them as “reckless” and “racist.”

Mast’s fellow Florida congressman, Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL), said his remarks were “racist and bigoted” while invoking the murder of a six-year-old Muslim boy in Illinois.

Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) was also appalled.

MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan noted the carnage before stating, “For shame.”