On Monday, Bluestem posted a Scott Jensen awful analogy news digest: public health measures like Kristallnacht, Nazism.
On Tuesday, he's back at it again, the Minnesota Reformer's Michelle Griffith reports in Jensen: Yes, I was comparing COVID-19 restrictions to Nazism.
For many months, I believed that the nincompoopery of our governor here in South Dakota was unrivalled, but now believe Scott Jensen takes the prize.
Here's the Minnesota Reformer article:
Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen on Tuesday said his past comparison of COVID-19 public health policies to Nazism was “legitimate.”
Back in April, Jensen said the steps taken to curb COVID-19 spread were comparable to Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, citing Kristallnacht — two nights in November when violent mobs destroyed synagogues, businesses and homes. Likening COVID-19 policies to a repeat of Nazism were justifiable, Jensen said in a video posted to his campaign Facebook page on Tuesday.
“I want to speak to a little bit of a hubbub that’s been in the media lately about whether or not I was insensitive in regards to the Holocaust. I don’t believe I was,” Jensen said.
Jensen and his running mate Matt Birk are scheduled to speak at a Republican Jewish Coalition event in Minneapolis on Tuesday evening.
“I think it’s a legitimate comparison. It may not strike your fancy — that’s fine — but this is how I think, and you don’t get to be my thought police person,” Jensen said.
Jensen made his April remarks at a MaskOffMN event. The group has called the government’s response to COVID-19 “a fraud,” and falsely claims vaccines are not safe.
At the event, Jensen explained why it was important to question government officials.
“If you look at the 1930s and you look at it carefully, we could see something’s happening. Little things that people chose to push aside. ‘It’s going to be okay.’ And then the little things grew into something bigger. Then there was a night called Kristallnacht. The night of the breaking glass,” said Jensen, whose comments were also reported Monday by TCJewfolk.
The Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas has stated in the past that “Contemporary comparisons to Nazis, coming from anywhere on the political spectrum, are almost always historically inaccurate, insult the memory of the Holocaust’s victims and survivors, and are deeply hurtful to most Jews and others whose communities were victimized.”
The group invited Jensen to a discussion about why they find the analogy offensive.
Jensen ended his Tuesday video by saying he’s allowed to analyze and think about things how he sees fit.
“I’m passionate in my support of the state of Israel, as well as the Jewish people,” Jensen said.
A tweet of his Facebook video:
Scott Jensen just doubled down on equating covid mask rules with kristallnacht as a “legitimate comparison” because “this is how I think” and, ooooooooh buddy, we know. That’s the whole problem, my good garbage dude! pic.twitter.com/l0OMTXhDZT
— Rafi Schwartz (@TheJewishDream) August 23, 2022
Some representative responses on Twitter to Jensen's new video:
"Outrageous." "Extremely wrong." "Profoundly Hurtful."
— Jeremy Kalin (@JeremyKalin) August 23, 2022
Not my words. That's what Jewish orgs say about #ScottJensen calling Tim Walz's efforts to save Minnesota lives the same as Nazi Germany's yellow star, persecution and murder of Jews.https://t.co/rYrcqN2jRl
When Scott Jensen doubles down on his Holocaust analogies in spite of the Jewish community’s repeated pleas to stop, it’s because he knows his supporters are eating it up. He knows it’s wrong, he doesn’t care because it excites his base. pic.twitter.com/cBKAwNRCDh
— hodel in the streets, chava in the sheets (@mrotzie) August 23, 2022
I called a high-level Republican operative and asked them what they thought of @drscottjensen’s latest comments. They said, “this is a [expletive] disaster.” https://t.co/qJDroAsTYx
— Michael Brodkorb (@mbrodkorb) August 23, 2022
And one of my own:
Jensen's nincompoopery about analogies makes me glad I spent a few years in Fayetteville AR having "Big Jim" Whitehead pound his head against the wall & yell, "God damn it, Sally Jo" whenever I wrote dumb ones. #OzarkFamousWritersSchool https://t.co/LWCb3sQwF5
— Sally Jo Sorensen (@sallyjos) August 23, 2022
Yes, there are those who care about language and metaphor. They're not "thought police," but people whose communities are at the heart of Jensen's oafish cruelty.
Photo: Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen speaks as supporters cheer behind him at an Apple Valley rally in May. Bluestem would hope that with his track record of awful analogies, he might be a little less fingerpointy. Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer.
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