Savage linked San Francisco event to the "artistes" and "leather fetishists" of Weimar-era Germany, whom he blamed for Hitler's rise

During the September 29 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, while discussing the Folsom Street Fair, a leather-themed adult-entertainment event in San Francisco, Michael Savage declared: "This country today is far beyond the excesses of the Weimar Republic that led to Adolf Hitler. God forbid that should ever happen here. But the German people, who were not all Nazis prior to Hitler's arrival on the scene, were shocked by the degenerates of Berlin. They were sickened by the perverts, sickened by the artistes, they were sickened by the leather fetishists, they were sickened by the degeneracy, and they couldn't handle it." Savage also said that the people who participated in the Folsom Street Fair are "doing what they do because they're sick, they're mentally ill. Every last person there is a mentally ill person, in my opinion."

Later in the program, Savage said of the San Francisco event:

What do you think God was saying through Isaiah: "What part shall they be stricken, as you stray away more and more?" Well, God was talking about the Folsom Street sadomasochistic fair in San Francisco. He's saying to those people, "What part will you be stricken of your body, seeing as you stray away more and more?" And they keep whipping each other, saying, "I condemn God. I don't believe in God. That's for the fools. That's for the right-wing Christians. We don't believe in that." And yet, they get sick and they die, and they don't even understand they're getting sick and die -- dying from their own behavior.

As Media Matters for America has documented, Savage formerly hosted a television program on MSNBC but was fired after he described a caller as a "sodomite" and told him to "get AIDS and die." Savage has also repeatedly referred to "the homosexual mafia," claimed that "the homosexual dance of death" is the "seminal issue of our time," compared gays to "drug addicts," and repeatedly called gay parenting "child abuse."

Talk Radio Network, which syndicates Savage's show, claims that Savage is heard on more than 350 radio stations. The Savage Nation reaches at least 8.25 million listeners each week, according to Talkers Magazine, making it one of the most listened-to talk radio shows in the nation.

From the September 29 broadcast of Talk Radio Network's The Savage Nation:

REP. JOHN CULBERSON (R-TX) [audio clip]: We're not gonna load our kids up with an unaffordable debt burden that'll bankrupt this nation and turn us into the Weimar Republic. We've got to be careful and --

SAVAGE: Well, here in San Francisco, we're way past the Weimar Republic. They had in the midst of all of this a so-called Folsom Street Fair, where naked men cavorted with whips and chains and leather yesterday. I noticed that our Italian grandmother, Nancy Pelosi, had nothing to say about values. This went on in the sickest city in the world. We're way past the Weimar Republic. I only pray that there's no Hitler in the wings.

[...]

SAVAGE: Now, I want you to go to MichealSavage.com, go to the middle of the page on the right, and you'll see a man in a leather mask -- a man, a grown white man, standing at a leather parade yesterday. A leather festival, so to speak, in San Francisco, where people were walking around with their private parts exposed beating each other up with whips, while others stood around in a drunken stupor, or a drunken orgy, witnessing men being whipped in public. And my headline is, "The Devil Runs San Fransicko," and that's what I said to Representative Culberson.

It's interesting to me that you mention the Weimar Republic, because this country today is far beyond -- has gone far beyond the excesses of the Weimar Republic, which led to Adolf Hitler. God forbid that should ever happen here. But the German people, who were not all Nazis prior to Hitler's arrival on the scene, were shocked by the degenerates of Berlin. They were sickened -- the average person in Germany was sickened by the perverts; they were sickened by the artistes; they were just sickened by the leather fetishists; they were sickened by the degeneracy; and they couldn't handle it.

Now, you know, leather and this and that is, you say, someone's business. I may agree with you. If someone does so willingly, I could look the other way. But it shouldn't be permitted on a public street. When this occurred last September, I voiced opposition to it. Nancy Pelosi had the nerve to say that, as a Catholic grandmother, she's not offended by it. I said, "If she's not offended by this, what would offend her?" Well, apparently, nothing offends Nancy Pelosi except Republicans who don't go along with her iron gavel.

No, this shouldn't be permitted in public. They should be arrested by the vice squad. But we have a sick mayor -- a useless, sick piece of spaghetti. He's not even al dente, you know, he's al softy. We have a mayor that's al softy in this city, not even al dente. The vice squad is now only looking for people who do not burn American flags rather than people who burn American flags. Everything's upside-down. It's "Alice in Wonderland." I guess what I'm getting at is this: At the same time we have the largest financial meltdown in our time, these sickos go to a leather parade and whip each other in the streets -- still doing what they do because they're sick, they're mentally ill. Every last person there is a mentally ill person, in my opinion. And what they were doing in the streets was an example not of wholesomeness but of sickness.

[...]

SAVAGE: What do you think God was saying through Isaiah: "What part shall they be stricken, as you stray away more and more?" Well, God was talking about the Folsom Street sadomasochistic fair in San Francisco. He's saying to those people, "What part will you be stricken of your body, seeing as you stray away more and more?" And they keep whipping each other, saying, "I condemn God. I don't believe in God. That's for the fools. That's for the right-wing Christians. We don't believe in that." And yet, they get sick and they die, and they don't even understand they're getting sick and die -- dying from their own behavior.