Lawmaker compares Obama to Hitler in tweet on Paris attack

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Texas congressman drew criticism Tuesday for a tweet that used the world's response to terrorist attacks in Paris as an opportunity to compare President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler.

Rep. Randy Weber's official account, (at)TXRandy14, tweeted on Tuesday night: "Even Adolph Hitler thought it more important than Obama to get to Paris. (For all the wrong reasons.) Obama couldn't do it for right reasons"

The tweet juxtaposes Hitler's visit to the vanquished city after his troops invaded in World War II, and Obama's failure to join dozens of world leaders at an anti-terror march through Paris on Sunday.

The White House has acknowledged that Obama or another high-level representative of the U.S. should have joined the march in unity with the French following attacks that left 17 people dead. The absence was widely noted, and heavily criticized by congressional Republicans.

"Rep. Weber's tweet is vile and stoops to a new low level by desecrating the victims of the Holocaust to make a political point," Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., said in a statement demanding an apology from Weber.

The Democrats' campaign organization also was quick to denounce the conservative Republican and to connect the incident to Majority Whip Steve Scalise's 2002 speech to a white supremacist group. Scalise has said he regrets the speech and didn't understand the nature of the group.

"Congressional Republicans like Weber are clearly catering to the most extreme elements - first refusing to condemn Steve Scalise's inexcusable affiliation with KKK members, and now this," said Josh Schwerin, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "Speaker (John) Boehner and Republican leaders need to step forward and condemn Congressman Weber and his toxic brand of politics."

Weber's spokeswoman did not immediately return a request for comment or verification that Weber personally authored the tweet, which remained in his Twitter feed Tuesday.

Weber has a history of inflammatory remarks, and misspellings, on Twitter.

In a tweet last year he called Obama a "Socialistic dictator" and "Kommandant-In-Chef," presumably meaning "chief."

Monday's tweet used "Adolph" instead of "Adolf" for Hitler's first name.

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