U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) Thursday morning falsely accused billionaire liberal philanthropist George Soros of having helped take away property from his fellow Jews during World War II. The Texas Congressman, known for outlandish statements and conspiracy theories, had actually gone out of his way to attack Soros in a Fox Business interview. The network and host were forced, belatedly, to denounce his remarks.
In case you missed them, here are Gohmert’s comments, which he posted to YouTube:
“Google is born in a free country and then they go over and oppress others, help oppress in another country. George Soros is supposed to be Jewish, but you wouldn’t know it from the damage he’s inflicted on Israel, and the fact that he turned on fellow Jews and helped take the property that they owned. This same kind of thing – Google coming from a free country and helping oppress.”
Gohmert’s comments were false. Period.
(And just to get this out of the way, Soros criticizing Israel is not being anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic. Gohmert should know better.)
But after massive criticism, he’s now doubling down.
The far right wing Congressman who’s accused Hillary Clinton of suffering from “mental impairment,” and suggested the world could decide about gay people by putting them “on an island” with straight people to “see which nature favors,” opted Thursday afternoon to release a lie-filled statement on his official taxpayer-funded U.S. House of Representatives website.
Gohmert now claims that George Soros “admitted in a 60 Minutes interview with Steve Kroft on December 20, 1998 that he had no regrets whatsoever about assisting the Nazis in confiscating property from the Jewish people during the Holocaust. That is a fact,” he says.
No, it’s a lie, and an old one, as Snopes and this video proves.
More importantly, George Soros was nine when World War II began.
The Anti-Defamation League weighs in:
An AEI resident scholar:
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