SANDPOINT — Outspoken state Rep. Heather Scott is drawing criticism for comparing Idaho’s stay-at-home order to the Holocaust and referring to Gov. Brad Little as “Little Hitler.”

Scott, a Republican from Blanchard, made the remarks on a Zoom interview with Jess Fields, a podcaster from Huston.

Scott said state determinations of which business are essential and can remain open and which are nonessential and must stay closed was akin to the tyranny exhibited by Germany during World War II.

“That’s no different than Nazi Germany where you had government telling people, ‘You are an essential worker or a nonessential worker and the nonessential workers got put on a train.”

Scott contends Little, or any other elected official, does not have the authority to prohibit peaceful assemblies or interfere with business.

Scott also cast doubt on data and projections about the spread of novel coronavirus and said the media is using scare tactics to over-hype the disease. She said the flu has vastly outpaced cases of COVID-19.

“15 people have passed away from this disease which is horrible, OK? But that is not an emergency. We are killing 35 babies a weeks for abortions,” Scott added.

Scott’s comments were rebuked by the Bonner County Human Rights Task Force.

“It makes my heart heavy to hear a comment from an elected official that shows such deep disregard and lack of respect for what the Jewish people experienced during the time of the Holocaust. It also shows an extreme ignorance of history. Her words will be especially hard for members of our community whose own relatives were put on those trains. Not to mention the few Holocaust survivors we are still privileged to have living among us,” Brenda Hammond, president of the task force, said in a statement.

Scott was a featured speaker at a protest of the state’s stay-at-home order on the U.S. Highway 95 Long Bridge on Friday.

“Heather Scott is the one who is putting people’s lives in jeopardy by encouraging them to disregard the Governor’s stay-at-home order and treating it as a form of oppression. Would it not be irresponsible for the governor to lack the leadership to take measures that will save lives?” Hammond said.

Scott defended herself in a post to social media.

“It’s unfortunate, disingenuous and a real disservice to the public that biased local and national media continue to twist and turn facts away from their original intent and into their ongoing war of hate towards conservatives and Americans in general,” Scott wrote on Facebook.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.