Kansas Governor Laura Kelly (D) is asking a Republican state official to remove a cartoon from her newspaper’s Facebook page comparing her recent order requiring public face masks to the Holocaust.
The cartoon was published Friday on the Facebook page of Anderson County Review, a newspaper owned by Anderson County Republican Party Chairman Dane Hicks. The cartoon shows a woman in a Star of David mask taped in front of a line of people entering a cattle car.
“Lockdown Laura says: Put on the mask … and get on the cattle cart,” says the caption.
Kelly, whose executive order requiring facial masks went into effect on Friday, said in a statement to The Associated Press that Hicks’ decision to “post anti-Semitic images is deeply offensive and should be removed immediately.”
“While it is disappointing to see him, on the fourth of July every day, I know that Mr. Hicks’ views are not shared by the people of Anderson County or Kansas in general,” he added.
However, Hicks is standing next to the cartoon. He told The New York Times that he was the person who designed it and that he planned to publish it in print on Tuesday. The Republican county official also claimed that he “had no intention” of Holocaust survivors or the Jewish people.
“Political editorial cartoons are gross overcartoons designed to provoke debate and response, which is why newspapers publish them, fodder for the market for ideas,” he said. “The issue here is government overreach that has been the hallmark of Governor Kelly’s administration.”
The Anderson County Republican Party did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment from The Hill.
The cartoon’s appearance came as parts of the U.S., including Kansas, experienced a surge in coronavirus cases, prompting some states to pause their reopening plans. The United States reported 54,500 new cases of the virus Thursday, according to a Johns Hopkins University database, representing a new record amid the pandemic.
The upward trend in cases has led to a more aggressive push by federal and state leaders for the use of facial coatings. But the recommendations have produced tensions in several regions. In Palm Beach County, Florida, a group of residents filed a lawsuit last week over an order requiring residents to wear masks in public.
The lawsuit alleges that such an order infringes the plaintiffs’ constitutionally protected rights.
In Kansas, Kelly’s mask mandate requires residents to wear a face covering whenever they are in a covered public place. Masks are required if people cannot maintain six feet of social distance while outside, according to the order.
The policy, which allows counties to opt out, will remain in effect until a state disaster emergency related to the coronavirus pandemic is terminated or expires.
“Mr. Hicks’ chart is not only extremely offensive, pointless, and out of touch with the values of Kansans workers, but it jeopardizes the public health of our entire state during an unprecedented global health crisis,” he said. Kansas Democratic Party Executive Director Ben Meers in a statement. statement. “Across the country, Republican and Democratic governors have issued executive orders to encourage the use of collective masks because it is an easy and effective way to prevent our communities from contracting COVID-19.”
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