Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Make a Passover gift and support Jewish journalism. DONATE NOW
Fast Forward

Republican Lawmaker Calls Abraham Lincoln ‘Same Sort Of Tyrant’ As Hitler

A Republican state lawmaker from North Carolina called Abraham Lincoln “the same sort of tyrant” as Adolf Hitler, sparking new controversy just days after White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was skewered for appearing to downplay the Holocaust.

“And if Hitler had won, should the world just get over it?” Rep. Larry Pittman wrote in a back-and-forth with other commenters on a variety of issues. “Lincoln was the same sort if tyrant, and personally responsible for the deaths of over 800,000 Americans in a war that was unnecessary and unconstitutional.”

Pittman, who represents a suburban Charlotte district, was quickly taken to task by North Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Wayne Goodwin.

“When American ultra-conservatives have come to believe beloved Abraham Lincoln is equivalent to Hitler, their politics have jumped the shark and gone from eye-rolling to dangerous for our democratic republic,” Goodwin wrote on Facebook.

Pittman’s bizarre remarks came days after White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer suggested that Hitler never used chemical weapons during World War II, even though millions of Jews were killed in gas chambers. He also euphemistically called Nazi concentration camps “Holocaust centers.”

This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.

This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.

With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.