Nebraska state Sen. Ernie Chambers on Tuesday compared the American flag with the Nazi swastika on the floor of the legislature.

“I don't come here for this rag every day, and it's a rag. That's all it is to me,” said Chambers about respecting the flag. “When you show a way to persuade Jews to sanctify and worship the swastika, when you show me that I'll come up here and stand while you all hypocritically pretend that rag is something that it definitely is not.“



The comments were in response to a bill put before the Nebraska legislature that would update school civics requirements and make students more literate in “knowledge in civics, history, economics, financial literacy, and geography.”

State Sen. Julie Slama, who introduced the bill, said: “Sen. Chambers’ comments not only degrade a symbol of ultimate sacrifice for our nation, but they also minimize the horrors and millions of lives lost in the Holocaust.”

Chambers, a registered independent and part of Nebraska’s nonpartisan unicameral legislature, refers to himself as “the defender of the downtrodden.” He is no stranger to controversy, having attempted to sue God over “destruction and terrorization of millions” in 2007 and in 2015 calling the police “my ISIS.”

When the Washington Examiner asked Chambers’ office to clarify his comments, they said it was not the first time he had compared the flag with the swastika.