Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) said Tuesday that he is scrapping plans to introduce a resolution to censure Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) after she apologized for comparing mask and vaccine rules during the COVID-19 pandemic to the Holocaust.
Schneider, who is Jewish, said that he was “pleasantly surprised” to see Greene visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington on Monday and make a public apology.
“I appreciate that after her visit she understood the harm of her comparison and offered an apology. In light of her apology, I am electing not to go forward at this time with introducing a resolution of censure,” Schneider said in a statement.
Greene drew condemnations from both parties last month after she compared requirements for wearing masks and getting vaccinated against COVID-19 to the discrimination that Jews faced from the Nazis.
Greene first made the analogy after she was one of several Republicans fined $500 for refusing to comply with rules to wear masks on the House floor. The Capitol physician has since issued updated guidance in effect stating that only people who aren’t vaccinated should still wear masks.
“You know, we can look back in a time in history where people were told to wear a gold star and they were definitely treated like second-class citizens, so much so that they were put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany,” Greene said on the right-wing network Real America’s Voice. “And this is exactly the type of abuse that Nancy Pelosi is talking about.”
Greene later reacted to a report about a Tennessee grocery store requiring vaccinated employees to include vaccination logos on their name badges by tweeting, “Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazis forced Jewish people to wear a gold star.”
Greene ultimately retracted her statements after visiting the museum on her first day back in Washington from a three-week recess.
“I have made a mistake,” Greene said at a press conference outside the Capitol. “I wanted to say that I know that words that I’ve stated were hurtful, and for that I am very sorry.”
“I just want to say there is no comparison to the Holocaust, and there never should be,” she added.
Schneider was also in the spotlight last week after he and several other Jewish Democrats issued a joint statement asking Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) to “clarify” a tweet that appeared to equate the U.S. and Israel with the Taliban and Hamas.
Omar subsequently clarified that she was asking Secretary of State Antony Blinken about ongoing investigations of alleged war crimes by those groups during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing.
“I was in no way equating terrorist organizations with democratic countries with well-established judicial systems,” Omar said.
Schneider and other Democrats have since accepted Omar’s clarification and sought to turn the page.
“Moving forward, I will continue to call out harmful or dangerous rhetoric by my colleagues, irrespective of which side of the aisle from which it emanates. While I will certainly have vehement disagreements with Rep. Greene on policy, politics, and style, I hope that Congress can take the necessary steps to serve as a model to a nation desperately in need of leaders willing to correct themselves when they are wrong, and to engage in a more civil discourse to ultimately work together toward a ‘more perfect union,'” Schneider said.
But a group of Republicans on Monday introduced a censure resolution against Omar and other progressive lawmakers for allegedly “defending foreign terrorist organizations and inciting anti-Semitic attacks across the United States.”
Other Republicans, meanwhile, are calling to remove Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) said Tuesday that Republicans are “keeping all the options on the table.”
Although Schneider isn’t introducing a censure resolution this time, two other Democrats have already unveiled punitive measures against Greene.
Rep. Nikema Williams (D-Ga.) introduced a resolution in February to censure Greene shortly before the House voted to take away her seats on House committees.
Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) has also introduced a measure to expel Greene from Congress altogether, although expulsion is a higher bar since it would require a two-thirds supermajority to succeed.