Shortly after being inaugurated as a Republican Congresswoman from Downstate Illinois, reading from prepared remarks in front of the U.S. Capital Building, Mary Miller paraphrased Hitler in a speech to a pro-Trump Moms for America rally. Specifically, she stated “Hitler was right on one thing. He said, whoever has the youth has the future.” This remark is based on a statement Hitler delivered during a Nazi party rally in 1935: “He alone who owns the youth gains the future.” The Congresswoman’s knowledge of Hitler’s speech is chilling enough, but to praise Hitler’s ability to indoctrinate youth, while standing in front of the U.S. Capital is deserving of not only denouncement but censure and/or removal from office.
The Congresswoman first tried to claim her statement was a “denunciation of evil dictators’ efforts to re-educate young people and similar efforts by left-wing radicals in our country today.” As this statement was made shortly before rioters stormed the U.S. Capital, and several political and religious leaders called for her resignation, Representative Miller issued a new statement stating that she “regret(s) using a reference to one of the most evil dictators in history to illustrate the dangers that outside influences can have on our youth…While some are trying to intentionally twist my words to mean something antithetical to my beliefs, let me be clear: I’m passionately pro-Israel and I will always be a strong advocate and ally of the Jewish community. I’ve been in discussion with Jewish leaders across the country and am grateful to them for their kindness and forthrightness.”
While the Decalogue Society of Lawyers appreciates the Congresswoman’s decision to make a statement that she is an ally of the Jewish community and regrets references Hitler, the fact that she took one of her first opportunities as a Congresswoman to praise Hitler as a role model is unjustifiable. We call on the Congresswoman to resign her post or for leaders to censure her.