OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — Oklahoma GOP Chairman John Bennett has doubled down on a post comparing vaccine mandates to the Holocaust.
In a Facebook video, Bennett speaks with a gun on his desk, saying vaccine mandates take away people’s liberties.
“If they ever succeed in taking away our liberties, imagine what they would do to us next,” he said.
On Friday, the State GOP posted a call to action on Facebook asking followers to call Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell for a special legislative session addressing private employer vaccine mandates while Gov. Kevin Stitt is out of the country.
There’s a picture of the Star of David with the word “unvaccinated,” claiming those with the badge would have limited access to travel, work and healthcare.
“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 incinerary. This was leading up to that. 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. Take away the star, and add a vaccine passport,” Bennett said.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Oklahoma City condemned the post.
“To take (the yellow Star of David) as it was used in the Holocaust to persecute and kill Jews and use it because of a disagreement on public health is so offensive,” said Roberta Clark, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Oklahoma City. “This is not like sending people to the gas chambers or to be burned alive.”
“It’s sad and ironic that anyone would draw an analogy from one of the largest recorded genocide in the 20th century with public health attempts to save lives,” Clark said.
In a combined statement Friday, Stitt, Pinnell, Sen. Jim Inhofe, Sen. James Lankford, Congressman Markwanye Mullin and Oklahoma Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat said, “It is irresponsible and wrong to compare an effective vaccine—developed by President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed—to the horrors of the Holocaust. 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.”
KFOR reached out to Bennett and the State GOP but did not immediately hear back.