Marjorie Taylor Greene Says Josef Mengele-COVID Link Is 'Fair Comparison'

Just seven months after Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene apologized for referencing the Holocaust when it came to COVID-19 restrictions, she has invoked the Nazis once again, this time comparing Dr. Anthony Fauci to Nazi "Angel of Death" Josef Mengele.

The Nazi doctor was known for performing cruel medical experiments on prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

During an appearance Wednesday on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' self-titled show, Greene said she agreed with a previous statement from Fox Nation's Lara Logan, who said in December that "Fauci represents Josef Mengele." The congresswoman also said that equating Dr. Fauci, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director, to the Nazi doctor was a "fair comparison."

When Jones asked Greene if Logan should have been attacked for her comments, Greene replied: "No, absolutely not. As a matter of fact, I tend to agree with Lara Logan, and I think most people do as well. It's basically been one big human experiment, right? That's what COVID-19 vaccines have been, that's what COVID-19 has been."

Logan disappeared from the Fox airwaves and was dropped by her talent agency this past December after making her comments about Fauci and Mengele. A number of parties, including the Anti-Defamation League and the Auschwitz Museum, condemned Logan's remarks.

Mengele was the Nazis' lead medical officer at Auschwitz who became infamous for overseeing widespread, pseudoscientific human experimentation on the concentration camp's prisoners. "As soon as these examinations were finished, they were killed with lethal injections of phenol to the heart so that the next phase of the experimentation could begin: autopsies and the comparative analysis of their internal organs," according to the Auschwitz Museum.

The total number of people who died under Mengele's watch remains unknown, but the Auschwitz Museum estimates that around 1.1 million people perished in the concentration camp during its years of operation in the 1940s.

Fauci, who also serves as the chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden, has encouraged widespread vaccinations as a way to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. He has also previously suggested that the U.S. consider a mandatory vaccine mandate as a possible way to speed up the end of the pandemic.

However, many Republican politicians, like Greene, have pushed back against this idea.

Greene's comment regarding Mengele is not the first time that she has become embroiled in a controversy surrounding her views on the Holocaust.

In June 2021, Greene apologized for comparing a mandatory mask rule for House members to the Nazis forcing Jewish people to wear gold stars for identification.

"We can look back at a time in history where people were told to wear a gold star, and they were definitely treated like second-class citizens, so much so that they were put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany," Greene had said during an interview. "This is exactly the type of abuse that [Speaker of the House] Nancy Pelosi is talking about."

Following backlash from this interview, Greene visited the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and stated that she'd "like to apologize" for "remarks that I've made that I know are offensive."

"I made a mistake," Greene said.

The Auschwitz Museum told Newsweek in a statement that "exploiting the suffering of people who became victims of criminal & cruel pseudo-medical experiments in Auschwitz in a debate about vaccines & covid limitations at the time of global pandemic defiles the memory of the victims. It is a sad symptom of moral & intellectual decay."

Dr. Allison Padilla-Goodman, the vice president of the Anti-Defamation League's Southern Division, told Newsweek that "there is nothing fair or even remotely accurate in comparing Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has dedicated his life and career to combating infectious diseases, to Josef Mengele, a Nazi war criminal known for his gruesome medical experiments on concentration camp prisoners. To call this shameful would be an understatement as Rep. Greene has shown time and time again a complete lack of deference and basic knowledge about the Holocaust."

"As we've said again and again: stop using the Holocaust to score cheap political points. Doing so only serves to diminish the memories of the 6 million Jews and the millions of others who were slaughtered at the hands of the evil Nazi regime," Padilla-Goodman continued.

Newsweek also reached out to Representative Greene's office for comment.

Update 02/04/2022, 4 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with a statement from the ADL and the Auschwitz Museum.

Update 02/03/2022, 4 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with a statement from the Auschwitz Museum.