Are there consequences for failing to tell the truth? That's the question that fact checkers in the media are asking themselves after GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan's debut speech last week, and the claims he made about his marathon running past afterward.
But according to the Daily News, one top California Democrat had particularly harsh words for Ryan's widely criticized speech on Monday.
John Burton, the chairman of the California delegation for the Democratic National Convention, told the San Francisco Chronicle that Ryan's credibility stretching at last week's Republican convention reminded him of the propaganda tactics used by Hitler’s Nazi propaganda director Joseph Goebbels.
'They lie and they don't care if people think they lie - Joseph Goebbels – it's the big lie, you keep repeating it - a bold-faced lie and he doesn't care that it was a lie. That was Goebbels, the big lie,' Burton told the Chronicle.
Burton was incensed at what he considered the many blatant falsehoods in Ryan's convention speech and he didn't back down from his earlier claim in an interview with ABC affiliate KGO in San Francisco: 'If you’re not telling the truth, you’re lying. Joseph Goebbels' concept was the Big Lie. If you tell it enough, people will think it’s the truth.'
The Obama campaign distanced itself from Burton's rhetoric. 'That obviously doesn’t reflect the views of the campaign,' Obama for America National Press Secretary Ben LaBolt told ABCNews.com, referring to Burton's comments. 'That doesn’t have any place in the political discourse here in Charlotte.'
The Republican Jewish Coalition told ABC: 'John Burton ought to know better than to bring the Nazis and their victims into our current political debates, but apparently the offense such remarks cause to Holocaust survivors and their families are of less concern to him than the prospect of partisan gain.'
In response to uproar from the right, Burton issued a nuanced apology on Monday.
'To correct press reports of my recent comments about Republican lies, I did not call Republicans Nazis nor would I ever,' Burton said in a statement quoted by the San Francisco Chronicle. 'In fact, I didn’t even use the word. If Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, or the Republicans are insulted by my describing their campaign tactic as the Big Lie – I most humbly apologize to them or anyone who might have been offended by that comment.'
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.EphraimKibbey | Sep 07, 2012, 03:36 PM EDT
@Padraig8 - well explained! You're as good at explaining as Bill, the President's Explainer in Chief. The really scary part is that it worked then and it may work now unless those who are paying attention and see the lies for what they are do not speak up. It reminds me of the old cautionary tale from that time that starts "They came for ... and I said nothing!" and ends with "finally they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me!" They are coming for the American Dream and we who see it, need to speak up.
Padraig8 | Sep 06, 2012, 11:27 AM EDT
Unless i read it wrong he did not say that any one was a Nazi. He said the Romney Ryan duo were like Josef Goebbles. That refers to Propaganda not the Holocaust. He is Right they do Lie about everything and have the same type of gullible people believing the lies i remember the Goebbles era and that was what it was like, Repeat a lie often enough and some people will believe it. i saw no reference to Nazis or holocaust so give the guy a break. He is just ticked off about the BIG LIES that R&R are telling. tiocfaidh ar la
eiriamach | Sep 06, 2012, 08:27 AM EDT
We shouldn't toss out Holocaust or Nazi references UNLESS we're dealing with Neo-Nazis! In today's GOP, there are plenty of Neo-Nazis. Ben Jealous, NAACP Pres., July 2010: "We take no issue with the Tea Party. We believe in freedom of assembly and people raising their voices in a democracy. We take issue with the Tea Party's continued tolerance for bigotry and bigoted statements. The time has come for them to accept the responsibility that comes with influence and make clear there is no space for racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in their movement." Republicans never denounced white-supremacist racism in the Tea Party movement, though there's no denying it exists--photos and You Tube videos are there for anyone to see. They've never corrected their Big Lies either. Ryan may not be a Nazi, but he is a Big Liar who benefits from Tea Party racism.
EphraimKibbey | Sep 06, 2012, 01:47 AM EDT
If EVERYONE else says something is a lie and repeatedly shows you the evidence for its falsehood, but you continue to defend it as the truth, what does that say about your ability to reason?
irishpjk | Sep 05, 2012, 11:59 PM EDT
wtf Read where Burton is from, the chairman of the California delegation, now look at Burtons photo. Need I comment?
JimmieM | Sep 05, 2012, 09:19 PM EDT
dumber than dirt....he wants to say something bad about Ryan and knows that poo poo head just doesn't get it so he tries to be all manly by naming him with nazi people...like he is just like the people who murdered millions of people? yea what a dumb guy it would be funny but it is dangerous and will get some people killed because some are dumb enough to believe him and consider Ryan a nazi
HollowDemocracy | Sep 05, 2012, 07:53 PM EDT
Is it my imagination or Paul Ryan actually looks like Joseph Goebbels in addition to imitating his tactics?
aloistmartin | Sep 05, 2012, 06:17 PM EDT
What a Couple Rounds of Golf, Two Martinis, a French Dip Roast Beef Sandwich and a side of Steak Fries, wont do for a Bourgeois Politicians sense of Super Ego ... Joseph Goebbels, Indeed !
aloistmartin | Sep 05, 2012, 05:56 PM EDT
Now as an independent I was say the exact opposite is true. The Democrats are masters of disinformation and obscuring truth. Did did such a good job that Obama, a virtual unknown with absolutely no experience except for being a radical organizer, never held a real job in his life, with such an obscure/questionable past....got elected.
JohnGalt | Sep 05, 2012, 01:54 PM EDT
No U.S. politician - before or after Nazi Germany - can lay claim to the concept of the Big Lie ... from Sam Adams and John Hancock, tea smugglers who used Mafia tactics of destroying private property (for which the government reimbursed the Dutch Indies) so that they could charge MORE than the price of "English" tea ... to the Emancipation Proclamation, to the invasion of Mexico (Alamo, etc....) "Remember the Maine", Gulf of Tonkin .... Iraq's WMD's ... you name it. The Big Lie has been national policy since Day One. But I'm still amazed that neither the Democrats, nor the press, nor anyone has noted the statements made by Romney and Ryan ... that "there are 23 million unemployed Americans." Actually, the number is less than 13 million. 'not sure whether this qualifies as a lie or ignorance.
BrianO | Sep 05, 2012, 12:43 PM EDT
one representative doesn't tarnish a complete party. The record of Barrack Obama should be scrutinized and thought about. If you truly believe in the actions of the democrats and the results of their actions, the vote for them. If you believe that the fundamentals that allowed American's to succeed have been attacked then vote Republican.
slainte9 | Sep 05, 2012, 11:34 AM EDT
Hilarious hypocrisy on the Democratic side. Comparing someone who isn't a Nazi to a Nazi is the Big Lie incarnate. Vice Presidents are the biggest nobodies anyway. Who cares about Ryan or Biden.
handsome68 | Sep 05, 2012, 11:25 AM EDT
How sad for our beloved country that the demonization of the other major party results in such bitter polarization. Republicans might say equally that President Obama is very like Hitler in his ability to sway the masses with his rhetoric. "The pot calls the kettle black" is a term that comes to mind. I grieve that the likelihood is that people will vote in the lesser of the two candidates. Benj. Franklin had said, "You have a republic.... , if you can keep it". I worry that we will not keep it much longer, and that a dictator will replace the president.
jamthecat | Sep 05, 2012, 10:39 AM EDT
There's an old saying -- "If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it's a duck." That's today's GOP and their use of the Big Lie. Burton should not have even begun to apologize for his comparison because that is exactly what Ryan and Romney are doing -- repeating lie after lie after lie, even in the face of evidence showing they're lying, knowing there are plenty of people out there stupid enough to believe their lies. Pointing out that they're using a tactic perfected by Goebbels is no insult to the victims of the Holocaust; it's a warning that the GOP and the money handed them by a few billionaires out to line their own pockets are a danger to Democracy in America.
seanaci | Sep 05, 2012, 10:31 AM EDT
The Nazi comparison is always an easy but overused call. I I feel Paul Ryan's influences is closer to his Irish roots. Despite him pushing his Roman Catholic faith, to me he is closer to the orators of the Orange Order with there divisive and partisan rhetoric. In this he is also pandering to the "them and us" theme that has become the bedrock of of US politics again - a throwback to the Know Nothing Party.
mairint | Sep 05, 2012, 10:26 AM EDT
In addition to porkheaven comments below, that man Burton must have had his head in the sun too long. If he throws mud around most of it will end up on his own face. Sounds a nasty unhappy old guy. Of course the sight of a Catholic in the limelight in American politics gets the bigots firing. Did any of ye ever hear such two faced remarks nicely polished and presented by the current First Lady? Speaking lovingly of her children and then promoting the wholesale abortion of future American children. Speaking of her great marriage to her husband and then promoting marriage for any two people who love each other - homosexuals. As if love was the only thing to make a marriage. The Dems lost their way years ago.
porkheaven | Sep 05, 2012, 10:13 AM EDT
That statement from Burton really shows his Marxists leanings of the former Democratic party that changed to a party of baby killers and Gays
susan724 | Sep 05, 2012, 10:07 AM EDT
I completely agree with Burton. Political analysts,fact checkers,including Nobel Prize winner for Economics, Paul Krugman (teaches at #1 private university in the U.S. Princeton) has said much the same. This is that the Republican National Convention last week spewed more lies than any national political campaign in the history of the country. Also, Krugman wrote a brilliant article this week of how Ryan was caught lying about his running a marathon in more than an hour of what he was spouting - FACT- Not only is Romney dumber than a box of rocks - the equivalent of Sarah Palin, but Romney is just as bad. OMG - Obama and Biden will eat them both up during the debates - can't wait!But there will still be the dolt Americans who just don't get it!