On Sunday, Benjamin Wittes,a journalist who is the Co-Director of the Harvard Law School – Brookings Project on Law and Security, chief editor of the Lawfare blog and a good pal of former FBI director James Comey, issued a lengthy Twitter thread in which he compared President Trump’s firing of various officials and targeting others as reminiscent of the Nazis murdering people in the Holocaust. Wittes has said of the president, ” … a major national security threat has arisen in the form of the functioning of the presidency of the United States under President Trump.” He has described his relationship with Comey in these terms: “We’re friends — we’re good friends.”
Wittes comparison to the Holocaust was obviously cribbing from the famous poem by Martin Niemöller, a prominent Lutheran pastor in Germany who spoke out against Adolf Hitler and spent 1938-1945 in Nazi concentration camps. His post-war poem read:
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
Wittes’ version read like this:
First he came for @comey, and I said nothing because I was mad at @comeybecause of the Clinton email investigation and I blamed him for Trump’s election.
Then he came for Andy McCabe and I said nothing because there was this inspector general report that said McCabe lacked candor.
Then he came for Jim Baker and I said nothing because I had never heard of Jim Baker and the FBI director is entitled to his own leadership team anyway.
Then he came for @NatSecLisa and @petestrzok and I said nothing because they sent text messages and the president and Fox News kept reminding me that they had an affair.
Then he came for Bruce Ohr and I said nothing because that one was so deep in the weeds that it made my head hurt and maybe Bruce Ohr shouldn’t have been doing what he was doing anyway.
Then he came for Jeff Sessions and I said nothing because, s***, he was Jeff F***ing Sessions and it actually took Donald Trump to discover the one or two honorable bones in his body.
Then he came for Sir @KimDarroch, and I said nothing because he’s a British government official and I have no dog in a fight over how the UK staffs its embassies.
Then he came for Masha Yovanovich and I said nothing because ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the president and he can remove ambassadors for any reason or no reason at all.
And then he came for Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and his brother, Evgeny Vindman, and I said nothing—because I was used to it.
First he came for @comey, and I said nothing because I was mad at @comey because of the Clinton email investigation and I blamed him for Trump’s election.
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) February 9, 2020
Then he came for Andy McCabe and I said nothing because there was this inspector general report that said McCabe lacked candor.
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) February 9, 2020
Then he came for @NatSecLisa and @petestrzok and I said nothing because they sent text messages and the president and Fox News kept reminding me that they had an affair.
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) February 9, 2020
Then he came for Jeff Sessions and I said nothing because, shit, he was Jeff Fucking Sessions and it actually took Donald Trump to discover the one or two honorable bones in his body.
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) February 9, 2020
Then he came for Sir @KimDarroch, and I said nothing because he’s a British government official and I have no dog in a fight over how the UK staffs its embassies.
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) February 9, 2020
And then he came for Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and his brother, Evgeny Vindman, and I said nothing—because I was used to it.
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) February 9, 2020
Social media from both the political Left and Right castigated Wittes for his comparison:
Leftist journalist Glenn Greenwald:
Invoking the Martin Niemöller poem about the victims of Nazism in defense of a bunch of security state technocrats who were re-assigned or fired and then profited greatly from it is repugnant but unsurprising. Security state agents are at the lead victim group among some:
Invoking the Martin Niemöller poem about the victims of Nazism in defense of a bunch of security state technocrats who were re-assigned or fired and then profited greatly from it is repugnant but unsurprising.
Security state agents are at the lead victim group among some: https://t.co/fYQHErydfc
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 9, 2020
The Washington Examiner’s Siraj Hashmi: “Ah yes, Trump firing government officials is exactly like the Holocaust.”
Ah yes, Trump firing government officials is exactly like the Holocaust. https://t.co/OJLhpPwJdW
— Siraj Hashmi 🐶 (@SirajAHashmi) February 9, 2020
Sohrab Ahmari of The New York Post: “Ah, yes, it’s just like the Holocaust.”
Ah, yes, it’s just like the Holocaust. https://t.co/FCYJweC3hK
— Sohrab Ahmari (@SohrabAhmari) February 10, 2020
Co-Founder of The Federalist Sean Davis: “By comparing Vindman to James Comey and Andrew McCabe, both of whom were referred for criminal prosecution by the DOJ inspector general, Professor Tick Tock von Boom Boom here is making our Vindman court-martial argument for us.”
By comparing Vindman to James Comey and Andrew McCabe, both of whom were referred for criminal prosecution by the DOJ inspector general, Professor Tick Tock von Boom Boom here is making our Vindman court-martial argument for us. https://t.co/vApibupAqk
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) February 9, 2020
Senior Editor at The Federalist Mollie Hemingway: “A thread in which someone suggests the firing of unconscionably poor performers is just like the Holocaust.”
A thread in which someone suggests the firing of unconscionably poor performers is just like the Holocaust. https://t.co/yYdbW1ae0f
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) February 9, 2020
Former CIA analyst Buck Sexton: “An absurd, offensive thread on every level, but among the most delusional aspects is his conceit that ‘I said nothing’ applies to these cases — Insane lib journos/Democrats spent 3 years talking *incessantly* about all of this, were constantly wrong, and always just doubled down.”
An absurd, offensive thread on every level, but among the most delusional aspects is his conceit that “I said nothing” applies to these cases-
Insane lib journos/Democrats spent 3 years talking *incessantly* about all of this, were constantly wrong, and always just doubled down https://t.co/g72fZ40Ttc
— Buck Sexton (@BuckSexton) February 9, 2020