Beck Rewrites History To Claim: “I've Never Said Progressive Is The Same As Nazi”

In the latest installment of Glenn Beck vs. Mike Huckabee, Beck seemed to think he had dealt Huckabee the ultimate blow. If only. In hitting back at Huckabee today on his radio show for the latter's recent criticism (in fact, a reply to Beck's first strike a few days ago), Beck accused Huckabee of trying to “smear” him by twisting his words. Beck fervently denied Huckabee's claim that Beck has said progressives are “the same as a 'cancer' and a 'Nazi.' ”

After playing part of Huckabee's statement from his radio show, Beck replied:

BECK: First of all, Mr. Huckabee, I did not realize that I had called all progressives “Nazis.” That is weird. I have said Nazis have used progressive tactics. You should read Bernays, Lippman. If you don't believe me, read Goebbels. He talks about it in his diaries. It's weird. The only time I've ever heard that kind of a smear is on George Soros' website, Media Matters. Interesting how you would go to Media Matters' talking points when you feel like it would benefit you, Mr. Huckabee.

I've never said progressive is the same as Nazi, so let's not try to twist this into me accusing you of killing millions of Jews. Or are you again trying to co-opt a George Soros program? And maybe you can be added to the list of rabbis that are boycotting this show as they twist my words.

In the same monologue, I compared Mike Huckabee's progressivism to John McCain. Now, while I wasn't a huge fan of Mr. McCain, I wound up voting for the guy. So I clearly don't consider progressives, Nazis -- unless you're taking the talking points from MSNBC, where anyone who has my point of view is a Nazi.

I have said the progressive movement is a cancer to this nation -- and it is. But I was talking about the movement, the ideology in general as it relates to a bigger government, not a specific person being an actual disease. Was it really that confusing to you, Mr. Huckabee?

We don't know whether Huckabee used the Media Matters archives to do his research, but if Beck had had the forethought to check our website, he might not have tried to deny he doesn't liken progressives to Nazis. He has, for instance, said that “national socialism ... is what the progressives here in America believe in,” just like Mussolini and Hitler. He has also said that the “progressives loved” national socialism and Mussolini, but that they changed their “words” to hide that fact because, “that became unpopular, for obvious reasons. The ovens were at the other end of that.”

But if that weren't clear enough, as we've noted, not only does Beck routinely claim that progressive tactics are similar to those of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels and that progressive policies result in Nazism (or sometimes communism), he frequently compares progressives and administration officials to Nazis.

For example:

  • Beck has said that the “one word that gives” Nazis and communists “context” is “progressive.”
  • Beck has claimed that “the end of the progressive road” is Nazis or communists."
  • Beck has said that while “nobody is a Nazi at this point,” “progressives have all the seeds of Nazis.”
  • Beck has suggested that there are “frightening similarities” between Obama administration official Cass Sunstein and Goebbels.
  • Beck has compared Al Gore to Joseph Goebbels. Twice.
  • Beck has claimed that putting the common good first “leads to death camps.”
  • Beck has said: “We are doing what we did with Nazi Germany right now. We're doing it again. And the trains will return someplace on the Earth. It will happen again. All the same seeds are here.”
  • Beck has equated the National Council of La Raza to “neo-Nazis.”
  • Beck indicated that we are “truly stepping beyond socialism and starting to look at fascism.” He proceeded to compare what was supposedly happening in our country to “what happened in Nazi Germany.”
  • While discussing a trip he took to the Holocaust museum, Beck proclaimed that “the Germans” during Hitler's rise “were an awful lot like we are now.”
  • Beck ran a whole “documentary” -- which one historian subsequently labeled a “complete lie” -- trying to link progressives to the historical atrocities of Adolf Hitler (among others.)
  • Discussing Obama's call for a “civilian national security force,” Beck said that “this is what Hitler did with the SS.”
  • Beck has compared boycotts of his shows to the Holocaust, and likened the Obama administration's treatment of Fox News to Nazi persecution of Jews.

Beck's continuous invocation of Nazis in relation to progressives is so rampant, Lewis Black commented on Comedy Central's The Daily Show: “Glenn Beck has Nazi Tourette's.” Black added: “It's six degrees of Kevin Bacon, except there's just one degree and Kevin Bacon is Hitler.”