Republican sparks outrage after comparing lockdown orders to Nazi concentration camps

A Republican lawmaker has sparked outrage after she compared the quarantine measures imposed across the US because of coronavirus, to Nazi concentration camps.

Heather Scott from Idaho appeared on the 'Jess Fields Show' podcast last week, where the host bemoaned the restrictions that have been put on people who are deemed to not be essential workers by the state governor Brad Little, who is also a Republican.

In a very ill-advised statement, Scott dared to compare the regulations, which have been put in place to protect people and prevent the spread of the virus, to the persecution that people suffered in Nazi Germany and in concentration camps.

I mean, that’s no different than Nazi Germany, where you had government telling people, ‘You are an essential worker or a nonessential worker,’ and the nonessential workers got put on a train.

I mean, they’re already calling him ‘Little Hitler, Governor Little Hitler'

Speaking to The Spokesman-Review, Brenda Hammond​, of the Bonner County Human Rights Task Force​ said that Scott's words showed "an extreme ignorance of history​" and a "lack of respect​" to the Jewish community and Holocaust victims and survivors.

Her words will be especially hard for members of our community whose own relatives were put on those trains. Not to mention the few Holocaust survivors we are still privileged to have living among us.

Rather than apologise for her comments, Scott accused Spokesman-Review of writing a "hit-piece" on her and went on to claim that her comments had gained a "positive response."

In a Facebook post she wrote:

It’s unfortunate, disingenuous and a real disservice to the public that biased local and national media continue to twist and turn facts away from their original intent and into their on-going war of hate towards conservatives and Americans in general.

My videos and interviews are generating a lot of positive responses and people are waking up. My recent analogies are poignant and relative to our times. While human lives are certainly more valuable than a business, we cannot underestimate nor ignore that our businesses are the lifeblood of the citizens who own them, the communities they are in and to the customers they serve. Losing the former destroys the latter.

Scott has been roundly criticised on social media for her comments, especially as they are occurring while mass protests are happening across the United States by people who are angry that they have been forced to take time off work and self-isolate.

Donald Trump has hardly helped matters, even going as far as to attack Maryland's Republican governor Larry Hogan, who he has accused of making false claims about states having ample testing kits.