Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) quoted an attack by Adolf Hitler on Jews on the House floor Monday to chide Democrats and the media.
Brooks actually read from Hitler’s autobiography, Mein Kampf, about the Nazi leader’s characterization of “big lie” propaganda that he said was used by his Jewish opponents. In Brooks’ scenario, it applies to Democrats and the media.
Brooks launched the attack in the wake of findings by special counsel Robert Mueller, whose newly completed investigation has cleared the Trump campaign of collusion with Russian operatives but did not exonerate President Donald Trump of obstruction of justice. Brooks referred to Hitler as “another socialist” and said Democrats and the press pushed the “big lie” of Russian collusion.
Hitler believed that a lie could be so “colossal” that it would be believed because no one would suspect anyone could lie that outrageously. Hitler claimed the “big lie” was used by Jews to blame Germany’s loss in World War I on an anti-Semitic general, whom Hitler hailed for his “superhuman will.” From “time immemorial the Jews have known better than any others how falsehood and calumny can be exploited,” Hitler wrote in the section from which Brooks cherry-picked quotes.
Brooks said on the House floor: “For more than two years, socialist Democrats and their fake news media allies — CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, Washington Post and countless others — have perpetrated the biggest political lie, con, scam and fraud in American history.”
In “that vein, I quote from another socialist who mastered ‘big lie’ propaganda to a maximum, and deadly, effect,” Brooks added before reading a section from Mein Kampf, which he failed to mention was written by Hitler about Jews.
“Quote: ‘In the big lie, there is always a certain force of credibility because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature ... and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie,’” Brooks read.
“It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.”
Brooks stopped before the end of the section on the big lie, in which Hitler stated that German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer “called the Jew the ‘Great Master of Lies.’”
Brooks retweeted coverage of his speech and uploaded it to his YouTube channel. Check it out at the top of the story.
The full “big lie” Mein Kampf passage from which Brooks read is included below. It’s from an English translation by James Murphy, the same translation Brooks used, according to AL.com.
But it remained for the Jews, with their unqualified capacity for falsehood, and their fighting comrades, the Marxists, to impute responsibility for the downfall precisely to the man who alone had shown a superhuman will and energy in his effort to prevent the catastrophe which he had foreseen and to save the nation from that hour of complete overthrow and shame. By placing responsibility for the loss of the world war on the shoulders of Ludendorff they took away the weapon of moral right from the only adversary dangerous enough to be likely to succeed in bringing the betrayers of the Fatherland to Justice.
All this was inspired by the principle — which is quite true within itself — that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods.
It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation.
And this is the passage immediately following:
From time immemorial .. Jews have know better than any other how falsehood and calumny can be exploited ... (Schopenhauer) called the Jew “The Great Master of Lies.”
Brooks warned at the end of his speech: “America can either learn from history or be doomed to repeat it.”