A Kansas Republican lawmaker is apologizing for inadvertently appearing to praise Hitler when she was just trying to trash Planned Parenthood. That’ll happen!
Representative Peggy Mast is the speaker pro tem of the Kansas House, the third most important position in that body. Which is why it was fun to see her take to Facebook to urge us all not to miss a profound quote from the Fuhrer. From the Wichita Eagle, ein transcript of the now-deleted post:
“Great quote from Hitler in the video,” Speaker Pro Tem Peggy Mast, R-Emporia, the No. 3 Republican in the Kansas House, posted to her Facebook page Thursday morning. “Please listen to it closely. His words are profound! Let’s start using discernment.”
Mast didn’t initially include a link to a video on her post, clearly a technical oversight; she later edited it to include a link to anti-abortion activist Gianna Jessen testifying before Congress about Planned Parenthood. (Jessen identifies herself as an “abortion survivor” and testified at a hearing about Planned Parenthood that PP was not invited to.)
Again, from the Eagle:
During her testimony, Jessen quoted Hitler on propaganda, contending that Planned Parenthood used techniques similar to those of the Nazis.
“The receptivity of the masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan,” Hitler said in the quotation.
Mast isn’t replying to Kansas news outlets asking her what the fuck, but she did issue a clarifying post on Facebook:
Hard to believe the words “Great quote from Hitler” could lead to any negative backlash.