Tomi Lahren Joins in Controversial Nazi Comparisons Over COVID Rules

Fox News contributor Tomi Lahren compared flight attendants enforcing COVID mask rules to Nazis on Thursday during a discussion about recent violent incidents at airports.

Lahren made the remarks on Fox News' Outnumbered, after former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany had called for people to "be nice to our flight attendants."

McEnany had also said airlines should "follow the science" and lift mask mandates, but they remain in place for now. Lahren criticized some flight attendants for being overzealous in enforcing mask-wearing rules, though she didn't give examples or say how airline staff should respond to people who refuse to comply.

Lahren said: "But I will disagree a little bit with Kayleigh on this. I don't honestly ever do this, but I will say there are so many good flight attendants out there."

"But there are some flight attendants that take their job as the mask police to extremes," she said.

"That is true," McEnany said.

"Becoming almost Nazis of the air and it's ridiculous. It drops beneath your nose, they're constantly getting mad at you. It's no wonder people are getting frustrated, " Lahren said.

She added that people still need to act "decently" and there is no excuse for violence before also calling for the mask mandate to be lifted.

Lahren is the latest critic of COVID restrictions to compare the measure to Nazi Germany. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican representing Georgia's 14th congressional district, apologized in June for comparing mask-wearing rules on the House floor to the Holocaust following a backlash.

On Tuesday, Greene tweeted a video of President Joe Biden's plan of "literally knocking on doors" to encourage vaccinations. She criticized the idea, saying people "don't need your medical brown shirts showing up at their door ordering vaccinations" - a reference to the brown shirts famously worn by members of the Nazi SA (Sturmabteilung). Jewish groups condemned the comparison.

Representative Lauren Boebert, a Republican representing Colorado's 3rd congressional district, also criticized the White House's vaccine strategy in similar terms on Thursday.

Boebert tweeted: "Biden has deployed his needle Nazis to Mesa County. The people of my district are more than smart enough to make their own decisions about the experimental vaccine and don't need coercion by federal agents. Did I wake up in Communist China?"

Washington State Representative Jim Walsh apologized last week for wearing a yellow Star of David to protest COVID vaccine mandates. Jews under Nazi rule were forced to wear such stars prominently.

Following significant criticism, including from the Anti-Defamation League's Pacific Northwest chapter, the Republican said in a radio interview that the "gesture went too far."

"It was inappropriate and offensive. I'm terribly sorry that it happened and that I was a part of it," Walsh said.

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum published an open latter on May 28 signed by 50 Holocaust survivors that urged politicians not to "invoke the Holocaust for the purpose of promoting another agenda."

"It is deeply painful for us to see our personal history—the systematic destruction of our families and communities and murder of six million Jewish men, women, and children—exploited in this way," the letter said.

Newsweek has asked Tomi Lahren and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum for comment.