Tea party favorite Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) said Thursday that Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels would be "very proud" of Democrats for shifting public sentiment against Republicans, and he blamed the press for helping spread their message.
"If Joseph Goebbels was around, he'd be very proud of the Democrat Party because they have an incredible propaganda machine," West told reporters in the Capitol. "I think that you have, and let's be honest, you know, some of the people in the media are complicit in this, in enabling them to get that type of message out."
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West was responding to a question about Congress’s low poll numbers and the fact that public blame is centered more on the Republicans. A Pew Research Center poll released Thursday found two in three voters in favor of tossing out most members of Congress in 2012, with a larger share of the blame aimed at the GOP.
The freshman Republican, whose district is in heavily Jewish South Florida, said his reference to Goebbels wasn’t designed to link Democrats to the overall Nazi party.
"I'm talking about propaganda, OK," he said. "Don't start taking my words and twisting it around. I'm talking about propaganda. And I think that's a very important thing. When you tell me that everyone thinks that the only people on Capitol Hill are House Republicans, it's because that's what's being portrayed, is that there's nobody else up here."
"Once again, you guys will take whatever I say and you will spin it to try to demonize me or demagogue me,” West added. “What I'm talking about is a person that was the minister of propaganda. And I'm talking about propaganda. So please. I'll be prepared to wake up tomorrow and you guys make up some crazy story. Whatever."
West added that Republicans "need to do a better job of being messengers."
"It's the truth. I think that we are not proactive messengers. We are reactive. We need to be able to go out and hone our message and all of us need to have that, whether from the RNC, the NRSC, the NRCC. Every one of us should be on the same sheet of music as far as what we're saying."
West has drawn criticism several times before for making Nazi-related references.
During his 2010 campaign, West refused to apologize for accusing Democratic trackers of “Gestapo-type intimidation tactics.” Then-Rep. Ron Klein blasted West’s remarks, saying the Republican had “shown reckless disregard and appalling disrespect to Holocaust victims and survivors."
This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 4:02 p.m. on December 15, 2011.