Republican candidate for governor Scott Jensen is defending his comparing COVID regulations to the rise of the Nazis in Germany which resulted in the Holocaust. Jensen in a Facebook video says he doesn’t believe he was insensitive — that he saw government policies incrementally “intruding on American freedoms… one piece at a time” and it’s a legitimate comparison to what happened in the 1930s. “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,” he says.
Marissa Luna with Alliance for a Better Minnesota says Jewish groups best summed up objections to Jensen’s comments: “It really demeans and reduces how horrific the actual events that happened in Nazi Germany were, by comparing it to masking and measures that were taken during the pandemic to keep people safe.”