NJDC: Conservative Nazi rhetoric has reached 'epidemic proportions'

The National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) on Tuesday sharply criticized a tweet from the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) comparing healthcare reform efforts to Nazism.

The group claimed the tweet was a sign that conservative use of Nazi rhetoric to criticize Democratic policies has reached "epidemic proportions."

"The GOP and conservatives' use of Holocaust rhetoric has reached and unprecedented levels. It has to stop," NJDC President David Harris told The Hill. "It's profoundly offensive to many many people."

Earlier today, the NRCC tweeted a link to a video on a blog that featured an actor playing Adolf Hitler in a biopic delivering a ranting speech. The video's creator added subtitles that read:

Pelosi has 256 Democrats in Congress, she can pass whatever the hell she wants...this is not how you socialize your country you're supposed to bankrupt your people!

The tweet labeled the link as "funny video" and was removed by the NRCC, which subsequently issued an apology.

"We saw the video this morning and thought, like other parodies, that it was funny," NRCC spokesman John Randall told Politico's Glenn Thrush. "In 20-20 hindsight, we realized it was in poor taste and pulled it down... I don't want anyone to think we're comparing Democrats to Nazis and to Hitler."

But Harris was not impressed with the apology, saying "it adds insult to injury" to think that somebody found the video funny.

"It's really the vast majority on one side of the aisle," Harris said of the Nazi references. "It's deeply caustic and offensive and it has to stop."

Harris added that the organization had compiled 40 instances of conservative politicians, organizations, and commentators comparing Democratic policies and politicians to Nazis.

"It would be a nice good triple digit number, maybe even a quadruple digit number, if we looked at the town hall meetings across the country," he added.