‘Joe the Plumber’ Blames the Holocaust on Gun Control - East Idaho News
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‘Joe the Plumber’ Blames the Holocaust on Gun Control

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GETTY P 101011 JoeThePlumberSamWurzelbacher?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1340214070584Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher is drawing scorn from far outside of the northern Ohio district where he’s running for Congress after posting a campaign video this week that seems to blame the Holocaust and Armenian genocide on gun control.

“In 1911 Turkey established gun control; from 1915 to 1917 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were exterminated,” Wurzelbacher, who is running for the U.S. House, says in the web video while pulverizing fruits and vegetables with blasts from his shotgun.

“In 1939 Germany established gun control; from 1939 to 1945 6 million Jews, 7 million others, unable to defend themselves, were exterminated,” he continues, before turning to the camera and announcing “I love America.”

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The National Jewish Democratic Council quickly condemned the video and demanded Wurzelbacher apologize and remove the ad, which the group’s president and CEO David Harris said shows has a “tremendous lack of respect” for the millions who died  in the Holocaust and Armenian genocide.

“It is not acceptable ever to invoke the holocaust to make a political point,” he said. “To say it does a disservice to those who perished and the memory of the Holocaust is putting it mildly.”

Wurzelbacher took to Twitter Tuesday to defend the video, tweeting that “No one in the video said gun control CAUSED genocide” and aimed to justify the video, tweeting “Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf that his agenda would not be possible unless the people were disarmed.”

The Ohio congressional candidate’s spokesman Phil Christofanelli stood by the video, telling The Politicker that “there’s nothing offensive about it.”

“Joe is a student of history,” Christofanelli said. “It’s a historical fact that Hitler implemented gun control before the Holocaust and that’s just a fact that was pointed out in the video.”

Wurzelbacher is no stranger to the national spotlight.

He gained nationwide notoriety as “Joe the Plumber” during the 2008 presidential race after Sen. John McCain’s campaign used Wurzelbacher as the poster child for the negative impacts of Barack Obama’s tax plan, which would have increased taxes on Wurzelbacher’s plumbing business.

Wurzelbacher is challenging Democratic incumbent Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who has served for 15 terms, for her seat in the U.S. House seat.

Wurzelbacher did not immediately return ABC News’ requests for comment.

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