US Republicans

A MAGA Republican accused the Biden administration of following the Goebbels playbook, and irony is dead

Oonagh Keating. Updated April 3rd, 2025

A House of Representatives foreign relations subcommittee meeting became the crime scene for the murder of irony, this week, as they debated allegations of a ‘censorship industrial complex’ supposedly created by the Biden administration to silence conservative voices.

Nina Jankowicz, the former executive director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Disinformation Governance Board, gave an opening statement which pointed out the irony of such an investigation happening under a Trump-Musk government.

“I want to acknowledge the irony we’re having this discussion as we witness an assault on the First Amendment we have not seen in decades. The Trump administration has directed far more egregious violations of our constitution than the imagined actions of the Biden administration on which this hearing is premised.”

Congressman Keith Self, who went viral after repeatedly misgendering trans congresswoman Sarah MacBride, implied that the Biden administration had been following the Nazi playbook – a hot take guaranteed to further send everyone’s irony meters into overdrive.

“A direct quote from Joseph Goebbels, ‘it is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion’, and I think that may be what we’re discussing here.”

“When you’re quoting Joseph Goebbels, we have a big problem. That’s alarming as hell to me.”

It wasn’t just congresswoman Julie Johnson who was appalled by the reference. Twitter users condemned it, too.

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It’s not the first time Self has fallen back on his apparent ownership of The Big Book of Goebbels Quotes.

In 2010, he attacked John Muns, his opponent in the Republican primaries, with the line –

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

In not unrelated news, Congressman Self insists that Trump won the 2020 election.

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Source Julie Johnson Image Screengrab