Arizona State Representative Mark Finchem has landed in hot water after comparing the actions of the Loews Hotel Group, which recently cancelled a GOP fundraiser, to the policies of Nazi Germany leader Adolf Hitler and USSR head Joseph Stalin.
In a controversial tweet, Finchem, who led the state hearing on election fraud allegations, claimed the move by Loews Hotels is the first step in the suppression of free speech purportedly looming on the horizon and related to the incoming Biden-Harris administration. The Arizona official implied this over the hotel chain's decision to cancel a fundraising event at the Portofino Bay Hotel for Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who was among the few Republicans opposing the certification of the presidential election results.
Loews directly linked its move to Hawley's political stance on the election, accusing him of supporting and inciting the Capitol riots on 6 January. The chain was not the first business to cut ties to the GOP politician, with Simon & Schuster refusing to publish Hawley's book.
Even though not everyone approved of Loews Hotels' actions, few people agreed with Mark Finchem's comparison of the hotel chain with Hitler and Stalin.
Many netizens suggested the Arizona representative should probably spend more time studying the history of the Second World War or even meet the surviving witnesses of those events, before making such bombshell allegations. They stressed that the hotel chain's refusal to hold a fundraiser for a politician is a far cry from the deaths of millions of people.
Some Twitterians pointed out that Republicans themselves have repeatedly stood for businesses being able to deny services to anyone at their will, but apparently were greatly insulted when this "anyone" turned out to be the GOP.
Several people took offence with Finchem putting Hitler, who triggered the Second World War and initiated the Holocaust, in the same boat with the Soviet leader.