The nation’s oldest pro-Israel Jewish American group has called for Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried to resign after she compared Gov. Ron DeSantis to Adolf Hitler.
In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News that was published Sunday, Morton Klein, head of the 125-year-old Zionist Organization of America, or ZOA, called the Democratic gubernatorial candidate’s comments about DeSantis “the ugliest hate speech I’ve ever heard.”
“Especially as a child of Holocaust survivors who lost aunts, uncles, and grandparents to the horrors of Hitler, I urge that Florida Democrat Nikki Fried be condemned by Democratic Party officials in Florida and America for her sick, demented comparison of the great Republican Governor DeSantis to one of the Jew-hating monsters in history, Adolf Hitler,” Klein told Breitbart.
“This is not only absurd, it diminishes and even whitewashes what the Jewish people and the world endured for six long years,” he said.
Klein lashed out at Fried after an interview she gave last week in which she said she saw “a lot of ways” in which Florida’s Republican governor was like the genocidal German dictator.
Her main observation was suggesting DeSantis’ reimplementing the Florida State Guard, a force that operates like the National Guard except totally under state control, was akin to Hitler’s Brown Shirts.
Klein added that Fried should resign, and her Jewish background only made her comments more repulsive.
“I also urge that officials join me in demanding that Fried should immediately resign,” he said. “The fact that Fried is Jewish only increases my anguish. There is clearly something emotionally and intellectually very wrong with Nikki Fried.”
“She should be removed from public life and from having any say in people’s lives,” he added.
“Her beliefs are especially insane since Gov. DeSantis was the greatest congressional friend to the Jewish State and went to Israel as his first international trip as governor,” Klein continued. “And I’m proud to have accompanied him.”
Klein then called on other Jewish groups and leading Jewish figures to join the ZOA in condemning Klein and calling for her resignation.
“Every Jewish organization and its leaders must condemn Fried and demand her resignation immediately,” he added, saying her comments were “the ugliest hate speech I’ve ever heard.”
“We dare not allow in this new era of woke irrationality for dangerous analogies like this to go unanswered,” he added.
Breitbart noted that Klein was not the only one rallying to DeSantis’ defense.
GOP state Rep. Randy Fine tweeted, “As a Jew, I am repulsed by @NikkiFried comparing @GovRonDeSantis to Hitler. No Governor has done more to help Jews in their state than Governor DeSantis. She needs to disavow her repugnant anti-Semitism — or resign.”
Mayor Gabriel Groisman of Bal Harbour tweeted, “Hitler systematically murdered 6 million Jews and appx 3 million others. @GovRonDeSantis is loved by the Jewish community and has led our state with dignity on so many issues. @NikkiFried, Your desperation is showing. Disagreeing with his policies doesn’t make him Hitler. Low.”
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Obviously you people are taking this comparison to its most outrageous implications. I think Ron DeSantis has the ability to manipulate public opinion and get people to agree when his opinions directly contradict hard scientific evidence is very much the same kind of persuasiveness that Hitler possessed.
Stop being so reactionary. I think Nikki is right.
The words “Hard Scientific Evidence” are pure Buffoonery
Leftists, such as Fried do not consider LYING improper.
If you think Ms. Fried is right then it explains why you see nothing wrong in her comments. When everyone else is disgusted by something you agree with perhaps it is time to take a good long look in the mirror and consider if killing 6 million people is really comparable to someone you simply disagree with. Your political polarization might be part of what is wrong in this country.
FJB is the new Hitler. Build Back Broke is basically National Socialism and is exactly Hitler’s agenda. FJB.
not everybody else
Neither do rightwing freakazoids.
You obviously haven’t been paying attention.
Better than national corporate ass kissing –
Add my name to the list