Just a few days after International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) compared the urgency of DirecTV dropping conservative channel Newsmax to the lack of resistance that some Germans showed during the Nazis’ rise to power.
During a speech on the House floor Tuesday, the freshman congressman felt compelled to invoke an often-quoted confession by German pastor Martin Niemöller after complaining about companies who “choose to silence conservative speech.”
“And now they’re going after Newsmax,” Burlison huffed.
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“You know, there’s a famous quote about what happened during the Holocaust…when the Nazis first came for some and people said nothing, and then eventually they’ll come for you,” Burlison said clumsily, not even bothering to give an accurate quotation of the piece. “And I say this not as a Republican or a Missourian, but as a concerned citizen for a country who has these rights that were here because of the blood that was shed by thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of patriots from the time of the American Revolution until today.”
If Burlison’s comment sounds familiar, it’s because Daily Caller reporter Brianna Lyman called attention to the same piece of writing during a Newsmax interview about DirecTV over the weekend.
Since DirecTV cut Newsmax loose last week, network hosts pleaded for the government to come to its aid. Ultimately, House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY) said the matter will indeed be the subject of congressional hearings.
Despite Burlison’s insistence that conservatives’ voices are being muzzled, it didn’t take DirecTV long to replace Newsmax with another right-wing network that offers commentary programs from the likes of Bill O’Reilly and Dana Loesch.
