PHILADELPHIA — Last week, a local Indiana chapter of Moms for Liberty attracted attention for quoting Adolf Hitler in its newsletter. After the local paper reported the story, the group added additional “context” but kept the quote. Eventually, after it faced even more scrutiny, the organization removed the quote and apologized in a statement posted to its Facebook group.
That, however, was a big mistake, according to advice at the Moms for Liberty national conference’s media training session Friday.
“Never apologize. Ever,” said Christian Ziegler, the chairman of the Florida Republican Party. “This is my view. Other people have different views on this. I think apologizing makes you weak.”
He advised the attendees to instead make it clear that the Hitler comment was “vile” but to immediately pivot to make the point that Hitler indoctrinated children in schools and that that’s what Moms for Liberty was fighting against. Ziegler warned that any apology would become the headline, so that should be avoided.
You read that right. He said to not apologize for quoting Hitler. That’s what we’re dealing with now.
You keep coming back to defending their Hitler quote. As if it’s ever okay to quote Hitler regardless of context. You want us to discuss instead… Actually I can’t really figure out what you want us to discuss. But you want us to ignore the Hitler quote. You said that multiple times now. I think anybody who’s quoting Hitler should not be given the forum for debate. I’m not one that call a lot of people Nazis just for the hell of it, but if you’re quoting Hitler… Well then you’re a Nazi sympathizer at a minimum. I have no interest in what else you want to say after that point.