'Take away the star and add a vaccine passport': Oklahoma Republican Party chair compares COVID shot mandates to Jews being forced to wear the Star of David by the Nazis
The chairman of Oklahoma's Republican Party doubled down Sunday and continued comparing vaccine passports to the yellow stars of David Jewish people were forced to wear by the Nazis.
'You see the star of David, when they put that on the Jews, they weren't sending them directly to the gas chambers, they weren't sending them directly to the incinerator, this was leading up to that,' said Chairman John Bennett in a Facebook video. 'They give them a star to put on them - they couldn't go to the grocery store, they couldn't go out in public, they couldn't do anything without having that star on their shirt. Take away the star and add a vaccine passport.'
On Friday, the Oklahoma Republican Party Facebook page featured a post that showed a yellow star of David with the label 'Unvaccinated' written on it.
Oklahoma's Republican Party Chair John Bennett doubled down and continues to compare vaccine passports to the yellow stars of David Jewish people were forced to wear by the Nazis
On Friday, the Oklahoma GOP's Facebook page featured this post, showing a yellow star of David with the word 'Unvaccinated' on it
The post said, 'Limited access to travel within their State, Province or Territory. The bearer may not fly, cannot enter a pub, restaurant, club or theatre. … WAKE UP PEOPLE - Is this sounding familiar?'
The post then asked 'PATRIOTS' to call Oklahoma's Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell and 'politely request he call for a special legislative session to address private employer VACCINE mandates, or their employees face risk of termination.'
The Facebook post drew widespread condemnation from the top ranks of Oklahoma's GOP including from Pinnell, Gov. Kevin Stitt and Sens. James Inhofe and James Lankford and a handful of state lawmakers.
'It is irresponsible and wrong to compare an effective vaccine - developed by President Trump's Operation Warp Speed - to the horrors of the Holocaust,' a joint statement read. 'People should have the liberty to choose if they take the vaccine, but we should never compare the unvaccinated to the victims of the Holocaust.'
But Bennett was undeterred, posting a nearly seven minute-long video to the Oklahoma Republican Party's Facebook page on Sunday, explaining his reasoning.
'This is Communist, this is totalitarian,' he said of vaccine mandates. 'And if we don't do something now it's going to end in the exact same result as we saw when nobody stood up when the Jews were told they had to wear that star.'
A handgun is visibly sitting on his desk.
In the video, Bennett also segued to the January 6 Capitol attack, complaining that '500 patriots' were arrested for being part of the MAGA mob, but not Antifa and Black Lives Matter for any destruction protesters caused in cities last summer.
He also thanks former President Donald Trump.
'Mr. Trump, I know you're watching,' Bennett said. 'And I want to thank you for exposing the swamp in Washington, D.C. It was given us the courage to do it here in Oklahoma. And we're doing the same thing.'
He encouraged viewers to join or fund the fight.
'It's our time to gather around the liberty tree as our founders once did in Boston, Massachusetts,' Bennett said.
Bennett has a history of making controversial comments - including Islamophobic ones.
Oklahoma's Republican governor is not mandating COVID-19 vaccines in the state.