A Republican candidate for a House of Delegates seat is trying to clean up comments she made during an event earlier this week. She compared herself to a Jewish person in Germany during the 1930s.
“To come out and say that you’re a teacher on the right is almost as dangerous as…going through Germany in the 1930s and saying ‘I’m Jewish.’ It’s gotten that bad,” said House of Delegates candidate Julie Perry. She is running in HD-86 against Irene Shin, the Democrat who defeated Ibraheem Samirah in the primary.
Democrats immediately pushed back against the comment from Perry. “Minimizing the Holocaust is inexcusable, and Perry’s antisemitic comments have sadly become the norm for Virginia Republicans,” said Grant Fox, the communications director for the Democratic Party of Virginia.
Perry issued a statement after the video started circulating on social media. “It was never my intention to be disrespectful,” she said. “I wish I could go back and express what I said differently, to more accurately convey the fear and intimidation I and many of my fellow teachers have felt in the face of the political activists calling us racists and saying they wish we were dead.”
According to her website, Perry is a high school history teacher in Fairfax County schools. She said in her clean-up statement that she was called a Nazi for not agreeing with far left policies. “Even though one of my grandparents was Jewish, I was called a Nazi just because I don’t agree with the far-left agenda invading our schools,” Perry said. “We need to stop the ugly politics and bring people together, that’s always what I aim to do because that’s what is best for students.”
Shin has not responded to requests for comment from Virginia Scope.
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