Former Cobb County GOP Chairman Jason Shepherd appears on CBSN December 9, 2020. Photo from Youtube/Screenshot
By Jacob Kornbluh
October 09, 2022
Brian Kemp, a Georgia Republican and an ally of the Georgia governor, compared large corporations that provide women access to abortion treatments to the Nazi regime’s treatment of Jews, according to audio obtained by Forward.
The Nazi regime ruled that Jews “were not human beings and had no right to life,” said Jason Shepherd, a member of the GOP state committee and former chair of the Cobb County GOP Event on August 17th Hosted by Cobb Young Republicans and Georgia Life Alliance.
“Today, because of the expense and the cost, American corporations are saying that these people are not human and have no right to life,” he said, referring to unborn fetuses. He mentioned that his great-grandmother, who fled Eastern Europe to settle in New York before the war, was Jewish and that some of his family members were murdered during the Holocaust.
Shepherd, a healthcare attorney, called out a few companies by name — including Home Depot, Delta Airlines, Mercedes and Walmart — and questioned the crowd if someone recorded and found that their comments were confidential. The striker was not present and did not agree to these terms. The person who shared the audio and was at the event did so on condition not to be named to avoid retaliation.
This attendee shared the tone of the event with Dekalb County Assemblyman Mike Wilensky, the only Jewish member of the Georgia state legislature. Wilensky said he was “disgusted and angry” when he heard the comments and called Shepherd’s comments “ignorant, harmful and wrong”.
“Nothing will ever be quite like the Holocaust under Nazi rule, and everything that is currently going on needs to be discussed on its own,” Wilensky said, adding that Shepherd’s comparison reflects “all the suffering of the millions who were murdered and the many.” , many more who suffered in the Holocaust and the loss of their families.”
Valerie Habif, co-founder of the Jewish Democratic Women’s Salon in Atlanta, called Shepherd’s comments “appalling and shameful”.
“The victims of the Holocaust had no choice about their fate,” Habif said. “Physical autonomy is a hallmark of what it means to be free.”
Shepherd, who is also a member of the National Republican Lawyers Association, resigned from the Cobb County Committee last year of the Cobb Republican Party after passing a resolution to censure Kemp for his immigration policies. He has been involved in Republican politics for nearly three decades and ran unsuccessfully for state party leader in 2021.
On Twitter, Shepherd frequently promotes Kemp, who died in July implemented a law which bans most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
Shepherd did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
