Republican Party chairman apologizes for bad taste cartoon

AdminJuly 6, 2020

Virus Outbreak One Good Thing Farmer — In this Tuesday, May 5, 2020 photo provided by the State of Kansas, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, left, and Kansas State University President Richard Myers award a bachelor's degree to Dennis Ruhnke, right, in Topeka, Kansas. The degree was bestowed upon Ruhnke, a retired Kansas farmer who shipped one of his five N-95 masks to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo despite worries amid the coronavirus outbreak for his wife who has one lung. Kelly said that Ruhnke "perfectly encapsulates K-State's democratic mandate to be of service to people." (State of Kansas via AP)

A Kansas county Republican Party chairman who owns a weekly newspaper has apologized for a cartoon posted on the paper’s Facebook page that equated the Democratic governor’s coronavirus-inspired order for people to wear masks in public with the mass murder of Jews by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

Anderson County Review owner Dane Hicks said in a statement Sunday on Facebook that he was removing the cartoon after “heartfelt and educational conversations” with Jewish leaders.

The newspaper posted the cartoon Friday, and it drew dozens of critical responses and international attention. A blog post by Hicks on Saturday defending it also drew critical responses.