As far as contemporary American politics and government go, the general rule when it comes to making Nazi comparisons is don’t make Nazi comparisons.

U.S. Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas ignored this rule Monday night, tweeting:

“Even Adolph [sic] Hitler thought it more important than Obama to get to Paris. (For all the wrong reasons.) Obama couldn’t do it for right reasons.’’

Weber was referring to the decision by the White House not to attend the massive rally in Paris attended by more than 1 million people and world leaders from Europe and Africa in solidarity after the terrorist attacks. President Barack Obama did not attend, but did visit the French embassy last week after the attack, which was called a “rather exceptional gesture’’ by the French president’s head of communications.


The White House apologized Monday morning for not sending “someone with a higher profile’’ to the rally. It took only hours for Weber to fulfill Godwin’s Law, referring to Adolf Hitler’s tour of Paris in 1940 after the Nazis invaded and occupied France during WWII. More than 560,000 French citizens died during the war.

Weber also misspelled “Adolf,’’ completing the public relations blunder double of spelling error and Nazi comparison. And all in 140 characters or less.

This isn’t the first time Weber has taken fire for his social media criticism of the president. Nearly a year ago, after Obama signed an executive order raising the minimum wage of federal contractors to $10.10 an hour, Weber called Obama on Twitter a “Socialist dictator’’ and “Kommandant-In-Chef.’’ I could be wrong on this, but I’m pretty sure Obama actually has his own “Kommandant-in-Chef.’’

Weber represents Texas’ 14th Congressional District and was reelected to his second term in November, defeating Democratic challenge Don Brown by more than 25 percent of the vote.

Update:

Weber sent out an apology statement to media, tweeted by CNN’s Jake Tapper, which said, “I need to first apologize for my tweet. It was not my intention to trivialize the Holocaust nor to compare the President to Adolf Hitler. The mention of Hitler was meant to represent the face of evil that still exists in the world today. I now realize that the use of Hitler invokes pain and emotional trauma for those affected by the atrocities of the Holocaust and victims of anti-Semitism and hate.’’


Weber’s full statement can be read below:

Here's part 2 of @TXRandy14 apology for Hitler/Obama tweet pic.twitter.com/NcmJa4St1A — Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 13, 2015

Weber has since deleted the original tweet from his account.