GOP candidate for Governor Dr. Scott Jensen has continued to come under criticism for his comments comparing mask mandates and other pandemic-related measures to the rise of Nazism in 1930s Germany.
Jensen says he wants to move on and talk about other issues. However, Democrats and Jewish community leaders are not backing down from the criticism and are asking for Jensen to apologize.
The comments came from a speech Jensen gave an anti-COVID mandate group in April but were just published on Twitter this past week. Part of Jensen’s speech included comparisons to how Adolf Hitler grew to power.
"The little things grew into something bigger. Then there was a night called Kristallnacht, the night of the breaking glass. Then there was the book burning, and it kept growing and growing, and a guy named Hitler kept growing in power. In a way, I think that's why you're here today, is you sense that something is happening, and it's growing little by little."
Then on Tuesday, Jensen defended those comments in a Facebook video, saying “You don’t get to be my thought police person.”
In another live speaking event Tuesday evening shared by the Star Tribune, Jensen tripled-down on those comments and said Democrats were trying to “demonize” him and distract from other campaign issues.
Friday morning, Jensen spoke to Vineeta Sawkar on the WCCO Morning News and was not interested in discussing those comments, quickly dismissing them for other issues.
“Comparisons will be made that some people don't appreciate,” said Jensen. “And I get that, but that's the end of the discussion. That's not (on the ballot) in November. We've got to deal with inflation. We've got to deal with crime and we have to deal with what's happening to our children in schools.”
Pressed by Sawkar on why he made those comments, Jensen again said he was more interested in defending Minnesotan’s right to choose.
“We're not going to talk about that,” Jensen explained. “The bottom line is we've been through a tremendous amount as a nation, as a world.
And I think part of my job as a candidate is to elevate my concerns about those subtle, insidious encroachments on our freedoms.”
However, Jewish Leaders and Governor Tim Walz (D) held a press conference Friday morning again condemning Jensen’s remarks about the Holocaust, and saying Jensen should at least apologize.
“If Scott wants to move on, what we need to do, he needs to stand up publicly, needs to take full responsibility, to apologize, then give an answer why,” Walz told WCCO. “And to explain to us what he got wrong in this and what he would do better. And then it's move on. We'll go on and talk about other things after that.”
Walz also criticized Jensen for his stance on Elections and COVID.
“You continuously deny an Election, deny COVID, talk about jailing, your opponents, do this and then you don't want to talk about it, and then scream that you're being called out,” says Governor Walz. “Stop talking sometimes would be a good thing, or at least apologize.”
Minnesota Representative Frank Hornstein was also critical of the comments Jensen has made. Both of Hornstein’s parents were imprisoned in labor camps, and his grandparents and other family members were murdered by the Nazi’s. Hornstein says Jensen’s comparisons are harmful, inappropriate and divisive.
“When my family’s experience, and those of six million mostly Jewish people, are trivialized and minimized, this desecrates their memory,” Hornstein said.
All of this week, Jensen has stood by his view that it is a legitimate comparison.
“So, when I make a comparison that says that I saw government policies intruding on American freedoms incrementally, one piece at a time, and compare that to what happened in the 1930s, I think it's a legitimate comparison,” Jensen explains in his Facebook video from this past Tuesday. “It may not strike your fancy -- that's fine. But this is how I think."
For now at least, Jensen tells WCCO that he will no longer discuss the issue and is “moving on”.
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