Mo Brooks, a Republican congressman from Alabama, who cited Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf on the House floor Monday to slam Democrats and the media for their "big lie" about Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Trump-Russia probe, appeared on WVNN's "The Dale Jackson Show" on Thursday to clarify his earlier remarks.
"The first 'Big Lie' was for two and a half years the Democrats propagating the unsubstantiated argument that there was collusion between President Trump and the Russians with respect to the election", he said, adding that the "big lie" is not stopping even after the election is over, but in fact "they've doubled down on it".
He then lamented that the "Big Lie" is working, and "that’s the danger of it and why we have to combat it".
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Brooks took to the House floor this week to blast the media and Democrats over the results of Mueller's investigation.
"For more than two years, socialist Democrats and their fake news media allies – CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, Washington Post and countless others — have perpetrated the biggest political lie, con, scam and fraud in American history", said Brooks, saying that accusations of the president's collusion with Moscow were "nothing but a big lie".
While branding present-day Democrats as "socialists", he directly read an excerpt about the "big lie", which is now thought of as a propaganda technique used by the Nazis, from a translation of Hitler's 1925 manifesto:
“In that vein, I quote from another socialist who mastered 'big lie' propaganda to maximum, and deadly, effect. Quote, 'In the big lie, there is always a certain force of credibility because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus, in the primitive simplicity of their minds, they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie’".
In his autobiography, Hitler claimed that the "big lie" was used by Jews to blame anti-Semitic German General Erich Ludendorff for Germany’s defeat in World War I.
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Brooks' speech has sparked much controversy on social media, with many users blasting him for the use of such words:
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) reads Mein Kampf into the congressional record—quoting Hitler’s accusations of Jews as purveyors of a “Big Lie” campaign against him
— Jeff Yang (@originalspin) 26 марта 2019 г.
Yes, a GOP Rep is *quoting Hitler* to compare Dems to “lying, conniving Jews,“ but Democrats are the party of anti-Semitism https://t.co/niHD1rAHrz
Quoting Hitler's Mein Kampf in Congress makes you a Nazi & anti-semite.
— Good JuJu (@SharedMotivati1) 27 марта 2019 г.
Quoting a christian prayer in a State House, telling people to "bow" to jesus makes you a religious extremist & an anti-semite.
Republican Reps Mo Brooks & Stephanie Borowicz must be impeached immediately.
It's stupid to quote Mein Kampf to begin with. Especially in relation to Democrats, there's no comparison with the Nazi's and Mo Brooks should know this.
— GoldenRodsRevenge (@GoldenRodsWrath) 27 марта 2019 г.
Where are the voices calling for a censure of Rep. Brooks for quoting Mein Kampf on the House floor today or Rep. Gohmert for his totally ignorant and offensive comparison of abuses in our nation’s Justice Department with the rise of Hitler? https://t.co/z3NLkBgXsN
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) 27 марта 2019 г.
The Anti-Defamation League, a US-based Jewish group that fights anti-Semitism, also weighed in:
It’s unconscionable for a member of Congress to demonize an opposing party by claiming it's comparable to Nazism. The vicious Nazi regime was responsible for the murder of 6 million Jews and millions more. This is dangerous and @RepMoBrooks must apologize. https://t.co/DQpxJUEg6s
— ADL (@ADL) 25 марта 2019 г.
The long-awaited summary of Mueller’s report, which was released by Attorney General William Barr, did not find any evidence of alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in 2016.
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On 24 March, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Jerrold Nadler, said that "the Special Counsel states that 'while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him'".
Mueller has been looking into claims that Russia meddled in the 2016 US presidential election, as well as allegations of collusion between Trump's campaign team and Moscow.
Russia has repeatedly denied interfering in the election, stressing that the allegations had been made as an excuse for the defeat of Trump's opponent as well as divert public attention from actual instances of electoral fraud and corruption.
Other Times When Mein Kampf Was Invoked in Congress
This is by far not the first time that the book, which is banned in many countries across the world, has been invoked in Congress.
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In remarks commemorating the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe on 8 May 1995, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif), who is Jewish, quoted the same passage as Brooks.
"In 'Mein Kampf', Hitler described what history has shown to be correct,” said Feinstein, citing the sentence detailing how the "masses" fall victim to the "big lie" because "they would not believe that others have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously".
Back in January 2001, Senator Barbara Boxer, another California Democrat, recalled that the late Sen. Alan Cranston had published "his own version" of Hitler's book upon realising that English translations has been "sanitised to hide the truth from Americans".
"He published his own version highlighting the 'worst of Hitler' and was sued by Hitler’s publisher. While he lost the suit, a half a million copies had already been distributed, helping to educate many about the true nature of Nazism and Hitler".
Speaking in favour of a resolution, "US Will Prevail in the Global War on Terror" in June 2006, Rep. Steve Pearce made a reference to Mein Kampf as well.
"The world chose to watch when Hitler published his blueprint for genocide in ‘Mein Kampf'", Pearce said. “The world also chose to watch as Hitler took power on Jan. 30, 1933, directing the boycott of Jewish businesses and opening the first concentration camp just six weeks later".
Mein Kampf is a semi-autobiographical account of Hitler's life which also outlined the manifesto of his Nazi party. The book represents the basis of Nazi ideology, including anti-Semitism, ideas of German racial superiority and the concept of Lebensraum (living space), the idea that Germans needed more space and should expand into Central and Eastern Europe.
