ADL Slams Texas Gov For Saying Mass Shooting Not As Bad As Hitler

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By Ari Feldman November 9, 2017

The Anti-Defamation League called Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s comments about the Sutherland Springs shootings “offensive” and “insensitive,” Chron reported Wednesday. The governor came under fire after downplaying the shooting, which killed 26 people, in the context of Adolph Hitler and other historical mass murders.

“Look at what happened with Hitler during the horrific events during that era, and Mussolini, and go back in time before that to the earlier ages, the Middle Ages, when people committed horrific crimes,” Abbott said. “And when you go back through the history of the Bible, there was evil that took place from earliest stages of the Bible to post-New Testament, so evil is something that has permeated this world.”

On Wednesday the ADL released a statement condemning Abbott’s words.

“The comparison of the mass shooting in Sutherland Springs to the victims of the Holocaust is deeply offensive and an insult to the memories of those killed in Sutherland Springs as well as the survivors of the church shooting and their families,” said ADL Southwest Regional Director Dayan Gross.

Abbott’s office has not yet responded to the outcry created by his words.

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman.

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. He covers Jewish religious organizations, synagogue life, anti-Semitism and the Orthodox world. If you have any tips, you can email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @aefeldman.

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