A politician in the US state of North Carolina who tried this week to re-ban same-sex marriage, has compared Abraham Lincoln to Adolf Hitler.

Republican Representative Larry Pittman, who this week introduced a bill which claimed that same-sex marriage should still be banned in the state, called the American founding father a “tyrant”.

The bill effectively declares that a 2012 state constitutional amendment which banned same-sex marriage would remain in effect, asserting that the federal government does not have the legal power to regulate marriage.

The legislation would put the state on a collision course with the US Supreme Court – and the state’s Governor and Speaker have both shut it down.

Writing on Facebook, Pittman responded to criticism of his bill, which was shot down this week by the House Speaker, making the comparison.

He wrote: “And if Hitler had won, should the world just get over it?”

“Lincoln was the same sort if [sic] tyrant, and personally responsible for the deaths of over 800,000 Americans in a war that was unnecessary and unconstitutional.”

The state Democratic Party chairman, Wayne Goodwin, released a statement calling on Republicans to condemn the comments.

“Rep. Pittman and his ultra-conservative allies in the General Assembly have no sense of decency, no sense of shame and no sense of historical fact,” Goodwin said.

“I call on North Carolina’s Republican leaders to immediately condemn these outrageous and offensive statements.”

Also this week, White House press secretary Sean Spicer was universally criticised for comments claiming that Hitler “didn’t use chemical weapons” during World War II.

But his comments ignored the fact that Adolf Hitler used gas to kill millions of Jewish people during the Holocaust.

They were also made during the most widely celebrated Jewish holiday, Passover.

In January, President Trump was criticised for omitting to mention Jewish people in a speech he made for Holocaust Memorial Day.