A Virginia state delegate who compared DOGE cuts to the Holocaust was lambasted by a GOP leader who called the remarks “utterly insensitive and hyperbolic.”
State Del. Joshua Cole, D-Fredericksburg, invoked a famous Holocaust-related quote from a reformed German clergyman who once identified with the Nazi Party during a hearing last week.
House Minority Leader Todd Gilbert, R-Woodstock, told Fox News Digital that Cole should apologize to Holocaust survivors and “every citizen of Virginia” after he associated DOGE’s targeting of government jobs to the extermination of millions of Jews by the German Nazi regime.
“Comparing the loss of some government jobs to the Holocaust is an insult to the memory of the millions who were slaughtered [by the Nazi regime],” Gilbert said.
During a hearing of an “emergency” panel addressing the effects of DOGE on the Virginia workforce, Cole claimed that his constituents are within the congressional district that has the highest concentration of federal workers in the state.
Cole represents a portion of Rep. Eugene Vindman’s, D-Va., 7th District. Democratic Rep. Don Beyer’s 8th District to the north in Alexandria houses more federal workers, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
“I must say that I have seen so many different people on social media rather excited about these [DOGE] cuts; rather excited about these job losses,” Cole said.
German pastor Martin Niemöller (1892-1984) addresses a press conference on the Central Committee Meeting of the World Council of Churches in Chichester, at the Institute of Journalists, July 15, 1949. (Douglas Miller/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears, the current Republican frontrunner in the 2025 governor’s race, slammed Cole’s comments.
“Virginia Dems disgustingly compared cutting wasteful spending to the Holocaust – trivializing the murder of 6 million Jews,” Sears wrote on X.
“Did Josh Cole just compare cutting government waste to the Holocaust?” asked Mason DiPalma, an official with the Republican State Leadership Committee.
“Virginia Dem[ocrats] really have no message and it shows.”
Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.
He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.
Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.
Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.creitz@fox.com.
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