Brown steps back from 'Hitler' remarks

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) stepped back from remarks he made on the Senate floor Thursday in which he associated Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Hosni Mubarak with Republicans who want to do away with unions. 

In a statement on Friday, Brown said he should not have mentioned the tyrants in the context of the fight over public service unions in Ohio, Wisconsin and other states.

“I am passionate about fighting for the middle class,” Brown said in the statement. “Ohio's teachers and nurses and police and firefighters are facing the loss of their collective bargaining rights, and I think that's wrong. But in speaking about this, I should not have mentioned the hostility of tyrants, like Hitler, to unions. I don't want my mistake to distract from the critical debate in Ohio, and I apologize for it.”

In his speech on Thursday, Brown said: “You look back in history, and some of the worst governments we have ever had, you know, what was one of the first things they do?

“They went after the trade unions. Hitler didn't want unions, Stalin didn't want unions, Mubarak didn't want independent unions. These autocrats in history don’t want independent unions.”

Brown was speaking in the context of the massive rallies union workers have held around the country recently against state governments’ attempts to break collective bargaining rights. But Brown said he was not comparing American workers to workers under those regimes.

“I am not comparing what's happening to the workers in Madison or Columbus to Hitler and Stalin,” said Brown. “But I am saying that history teaches us that unions are a very positive force in society.”