Southwest MO's congressman invokes Holocaust quote during speech about Newsmax

U.S. Rep. Eric Burlison, the Republican congressman for southwest Missouri, in a speech Tuesday evening invoked a famous quote about the Holocaust while speaking about TV providers dropping a right-wing news network from their channel lineups.

Burlison took the U.S. House floor during a period of time reserved for general speeches to express frustration at DirecTV and AT&T for removing Newsmax, a conservative news channel, from its listings following what the provider called a dispute over fees being requested by the channel. The delisting follows last year's decision by the provider to stop carrying One America News Network, or OAN, another right-leaning channel.

The freshman congressman from Battlefield, who has been a strong critic of the Biden administration, characterized the decision as an extension of efforts by the government to censor conservative outlooks in media.

"And now we have entities, businesses that the federal government has given special privilege to provide over-the-air television, cable television ... that these companies choose to silence conservative speech by first deplatforming or eliminating One America News, and now they're going after Newsmax," Burlison said.

He then alluded to a famous quote from Martin Niemöller, a German pastor who became an outspoken critic of the Nazi regime and warned of citizens standing by in the face of authoritarianism. It begins, "first they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a socialist."

"There's a famous quote about what happened during the Holocaust," Burlison said. "When individuals, when the Nazis first came for some, and people said nothing. Then eventually they'll come for you.

"I say this not as a Republican or a Missourian, but as a concerned citizen for a country who has these rights. That we're here because of the blood that was shed by thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of patriots."

Burlison joins a number of Republican lawmakers and politicians who have called for investigations into the matter. U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado also spoke on the House floor Tuesday evening. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy has said he was "very concerned" about DirecTV dropping the channel, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, widely viewed as a potential 2024 presidential candidate, demanded a congressional probe.

Galen Bacharier covers Missouri politics & government for the News-Leader. Contact him at gbacharier@news-leader.com or on Twitter @galenbacharier.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri congressman invokes Holocaust quote in speech about Newsmax