Republican Lawmaker Calls Abraham Lincoln ‘Same Sort Of Tyrant’ As Hitler
Image by White House
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.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
