Romney campaign tells Obama to 'rein in his supporters' on Nazi comments

Mitt Romney's campaign issued a statement Wednesday demanding Democratic officials "cease and desist from comparing those with whom they disagree to Nazis" after the chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party compared Gov. Nikki Haley (R-S.C.) to Adolf Hitler mistress Eva Braun.

"The latest offender is Dick Harpootlian, the South Carolina Democratic Party chairman, whose outrageous words I will not repeat," said former Sen. Norm Coleman (Minn.) in a statement released by the Romney campaign. "In recent days, we’ve seen similarly disgraceful statements from a top Kansas Democratic delegate and from the chairman of the California Democratic Party.

"President Obama has called for civility in American politics. If his call is to be taken seriously, it’s time for the President to rein in those of his supporters and allies who are trivializing Nazism while also shamelessly trampling on the most basic rules of American political discourse.”

Harpootlian made the comments in reference to a Republican National Committee rapid-response center in the basement of the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C.

“She was down in the bunker à la Eva Braun,” he said.

At a press conference later in the day, Haley blasted the remark as "unfortunate."

“Dick Harpootlian is an angry, hateful man that continues to embarrass South Carolina every time he opens his mouth,” Haley said.

Contacted later in the day by CNN, Harpootlian was unapologetic.

“Hell no. What am I apologizing for?,” he said when asked by the network if he would apologize. “This is fake. Nikki Haley is feigning this. There is not a sincere bone in her body.”

“I don’t even know if Eva Braun was a Nazi or not, but I know she dated one,” he continued. “I wasn’t trying to insinuate that Nikki was a Nazi. I was saying that she was hanging out in an insular bunker in Charlotte when she won’t give access to the press here in South Carolina.”

As Coleman referenced in his letter, Harpootlian was not the only Democrat to reference Nazism in recent days. 

Pat Lehman, a delegate from Kansas, invoked Hitler while criticizing the accuracy of Romney campaign talking points.

“It’s like Hitler said: If you’re going to tell a lie, tell a big lie, and if you tell it often enough and say it in a loud enough voice, some people are going to believe you,” Lehman told the Witchita Eagle.

And John Burton, the chairman of the California Democratic Party, compared Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.

"They lie and they don't care if people think they lie ... Joseph Goebbels — the big lie, you keep repeating it," Burton told KCBS radio. "That was Goebbels, the big lie."

Burton later issued a statement apologizing for his remark.

"If Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan or the Republicans are insulted by my describing their campaign tactic as the big lie — I most humbly apologize to them or anyone who might have been offended by that comment," he said.

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