The Senate confirmed President Joe Biden’s pick for Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, Deborah Lipstadt, who has been criticized for comparing Trump’s presidency to Nazi Germany.
Lipstadt — who worked as an educator at Emory University and as a historian of Jewish history and the Holocaust — was nominated by Biden to the position 8 months ago. Lipstadt’s confirmation was subsequently held up by Republicans, who were troubled by some of her comments and positions during the Trump administration, according to ABC News.
Lipstadt was finally confirmed by unanimous consent Wednesday night, without any Republican objections.
In September of 2020, shortly before the election, the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA) released a video ad featuring a split-screen of former President Donald Trump speaking with images from Nazi Germany, including swastikas and Germans performing the Nazi salute. The narrator says, “History shows us what happens when leaders use hatred and nationalism to divide their people.”
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Mainstream Jewish organizations, including the left-of-center Anti-Defamation League (ADL), condemned the ad.
The video from @USJewishDems is the latest in growing references to Hitler, Goebbels or other Nazi leaders. This has no place in the presidential race and is deeply offensive to the memories of 6M+ Jews systematically exterminated during the Shoah. https://t.co/pvO89COrI6
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) September 29, 2020
Lipstadt defended the ad and the Trump-Nazi comparison at the time. “I would say in the attacks we’re seeing on the press, the courts, academic institutions, elected officials and even, and most chillingly, the electoral process, that this deserves comparison,” Lipstadt said about then-President Trump’s policies, according to the Jewish Standard.
“It’s again showing how the public’s hatred can be whipped up against Jews,” she added.
Lipstadt tried to clarify her statements after some pushback, claiming she wasn’t comparing Trump’s policies to the Holocaust, only Germany in the early 1930s. (RELATED: Sen. Ron Johnson Confronts Biden Nominee Deborah Lipstadt Over Her ‘White Supremacy’ Tweet)
“What it [Trump’s Presidency] well might be is December 1932, Hitler comes to power on Jan. 30, 1933 — it might be Jan. 15, 1933,” Lipstadt reportedly said.
Lipstadt was also criticized in 2020 for defending Joe Biden’s comparison of then-President Trump to infamous Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.
“ZOA Condemns Holocaust Lecturer Deborah Lipstadt for Defending & Promoting Biden’s Obscene Comparison of Trump to Nazi Goebbels,’’ the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) said in response. ZOA is the oldest pro-Israel group in the United States.
As Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, Lipstadt will develop and implement policies and projects to support efforts to combat anti-semitism, according to the State Department.