Republican sparks backlash after quoting Nazi Joseph Goebbels in Congressional hearing

A Republican senator has been slammed for quoting the Nazi Joseph Goebbels in a Congressional hearing.

The incident occurred when Texas congressman Keith Self was speaking during a House foreign relations subcommittee meeting and used a quote from the infamous Nazi propagandist Goebbels to try to get his point across.

He said: “A direct quote from Joseph Goebbels [the Nazi propaganda minister]: ‘It is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion’, and I think that may be what we’re discussing here.”

Rather unsurprisingly, quoting a man who helped spread and enable Adolf Hitler’s horrific ideology raised some concern.

Democratic senator Julie Johnson responded in disbelief.

“I want to respond to what my colleague from Texas just said. When you’re quoting Joseph Goebbels about state, the role of state in the public debate, we have a big problem,” Johnson said.

“I mean, that’s as alarming as hell to me, when that becomes the gold standard of Hitler, and all that was going on in Russia, I mean, in German atrocities during World War II, when that becomes the quote of this hearing.”

Johnson is far from the only person to be horrified by his choice of quote.

“When Republicans start quoting Josef Goebbels you know America is f**ked,” one person wrote.

Someone else argued: “What kind of democracy quotes Nazis to make a point? The line isn’t just being crossed—it’s being erased.”

Another simply wrote: “Uh.”

Shockingly, it appears this is not the first time Self has quoted Hitler’s close ally, Goebbels.

In 2010, in an attempted burn against his opponent in the race to be reelected as Collin County Judge, Self quoted Goebbels again, saying: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

At the time, he claimed he only used the quote to suggest that his opponent “was using the method”.

It's the second time in recent weeks Self has made headlines after he purposefully misgendered a trans congresswoman.

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