California Jewish lawmakers on Tuesday condemned the effort to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom for repeatedly comparing the governor to Adolf Hitler and comparing his coronavirus restrictions to the Holocaust.
At a meeting of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, lawmakers expressed dismay that recall supporters and leaders had compared the governor and his efforts to save lives during the pandemic to the Nazi movement, which systematically murdered more than 6 million Jews.
State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, said some recall supporters are also following the dangerous ideas promoted by QAnon, which has recently shifted toward spreading conspiracy theories about Asian and Jewish people.
"At the same time, we see that some leaders in the recall are actually hijacking the Holocaust. They are comparing Gavin Newsom to Adolf Hitler because of pandemic restrictions and public health orders that have saved so many lives in our state," Wiener said. "These are so deeply offensive to our community that again it shows what is motivating the organizers of this recall."
Cordie Williams, a Carlsbad chiropractor and one of the leaders of the recall movement, has on multiple occasions compared Newsom to Adolf Hitler and his policies to Nazi death camps.
At an August rally opposing Newsom's stay-at-home orders, Williams, speaking to the crowd, railed against Newsom's mask mandate.
"In World War II, there was a furnace that said Auschwitz," Williams says in a video posted by then-congressional candidate Buzz Patterson. "Right now that furnace says Socialism. And so many Americans are headed towards that furnace. ..."
Williams has also repeatedly called the governor "Adolf Newsom."
Other Hitler comparisons have appeared on various Recall Newsom Facebook pages, with one in December encouraging followers to "DO OUR PART IN GETTING ADOLF OUTTA HERE."
Over the past year, images of Newsom portrayed as Hitler have appeared at various rallies condemning his stay-at-home orders and other pandemic policies. At a May 1 rally at the Capitol, a plane flew over the gathering with a banner featuring a picture of Newsom portrayed as Hitler, Photoshopped in front of a swastika, reading "end his tyranny."
The same image was shown on a large banner at a "Reopen California" rally held by anti-vaccine advocates a week later.
Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel, D-Encino, and chair of the Legislative Jewish Caucus, said he doesn't want to insinuate that any person who signed a recall petition is anti-Semitic.
"Voters in the state of California ought to take a hard look at who is behind this and who originated this effort and some of the really extreme views and extreme rhetoric of those folks," he said. "I understand that there are folks who are frustrated with the governor for a lot of different reasons ... that is natural in a moment where we are going through a once-in-a-century global health pandemic."
"We do think folks ought to take a hard look at who's behind this ... at the center of this, they will find folks who have really reprehensible views," he added.
Randy Economy, spokesman for the recall campaign, called Wiener a radical and denounced attacks from him and the "left-wing politicians who are making this recall about race."
"Today, members of the California Jewish Democratic Caucus labeled 2.1 million Californians who signed the recall petition against Governor Newsom as being anti-Semitic. Shame on them," he said in a statement. "We denounce these hateful political stunts. RecallGavin2020 denounces any form of hate and bigotry. We demand that Senator Scott Wiener and his fellow caucus members apologize to the 2.1 million Californians whom they labeled today needlessly with one brush."
The condemnation by Jewish lawmakers on Tuesday is the latest concern about the recall campaign's rhetoric that has been raised in recent weeks. Leader Orrin Heatlie came under fire for a Facebook post in which he said he supported microchipping immigrants.
Heatlie told The Sacramento Bee the post was "hyperbole" and said he has always been "adamantly against forced microchipping, forced tattoos or forced vaccines."
Jewish leaders on Tuesday argued that comparing forced tattoos, which were used in the Holocaust, to vaccines is offensive.
The recall also came under fire this week for anti-Asian comments and rhetoric. The San Francisco Chronicle reported a pattern of hateful phrases used by the recall and its leaders. Proponents have repeatedly called COVID-19 a "Chinese virus" and referred to it as the "Community Chinese Party" virus.
Heatlie told The Bee on Monday that the campaign removed the language from its website out of respect for the recent shootings in Atlanta that left six Asian women dead.
As Californians wait to see if the recall election will qualify, Newsom has deployed a full offensive strategy to combat the effort. The governor and his allies have worked to paint the recall as one led by radical Republicans, conspiracy theorists and Trump supporters.
Recall leaders maintain that the recall is a grassroots, bipartisan effort to oust an unpopular governor.
