Republican senators fire back after Joe Biden seemingly compares them to infamous Nazi propaganda leader

Two Republican senators are responding after President-elect Joe Biden allegedly compared them to infamous Nazi propaganda leader Joseph Goebbels.

What did Biden say?

Responding to a question from a reporter on Friday, Biden claimed that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) are part of the "big lie." Both senators led efforts to oppose the certification of Biden's Electoral College victory, which their critics have claimed make them at least partially culpable for the U.S. Capitol riots.

Biden invoking "the big lie" is a reference to Goebbels, the propaganda minister of Nazi Germany, and his method of repeating a massive lie to manipulate the public into believing the falsehood is true.

"I think they should be just flat beat the next time they run," Biden said of Cruz and Hawley. "I think the American public has a real good clear look at who they are."

"They're part of the big lie, the big lie," Biden continued. "[Y]ou know Goebbels in the great lie, you keep repeating the lie, repeating the lie."

Later, Biden added, "The degree to which it becomes corrosive is in direct proportion of the number of people who say it. And so it's interesting to me and I was pleased to hear some more prominent Republicans say to me that Ted Cruz's of the world are as responsible in terms of people believing the lies as, not as responsible, but similar responsible like Trump."

Biden has previously compared President Donald Trump to Goebbels.

"He's sort of like Goebbels," Biden said of Trump in September. "You say the lie long enough, keep repeating it, repeating it, repeating it — it becomes common knowledge."

How did Cruz and Hawley respond?

Hawley called Biden's remarks "utterly shameful" and "undignified, immature, and intemperate."

Hawley said in a statement:

President-elect Biden has just compared me and another Republican Senator to Nazis. You read that correctly. Think about that for a moment. Let it sink in. Because I raised questions in the format prescribed by the laws of the United States about the way elections were conducted in the state of Pennsylvania, just as Democrats did about other states in 2001, 2005, and 2017, he is calling me a Nazi. This is undignified, immature, and intemperate behavior from the President-elect. It is utterly shameful. He should act like a dignified adult and retract these sick comments. And every Democrat member of Congress should be asked to disavow these disgusting comments.

Meanwhile, Cruz said that Biden's comments only serve to further divide America, not promote healing or unity.

"Really sad. At a time of deep national division, President-elect Biden's choice to call his political opponents literal Nazis does nothing to bring us together or promote healing. This kind of vicious partisan rhetoric only tears our country apart," Cruz said.