GOP lawmaker Frank Niceley has good news for homeless people: Work hard and history may remember you as an anti-Semitic dictator who kills millions and leads your country to ruin.
“I want to give you a little history on homelessness,” the state senator from Tennessee said before declaring his support for a bill that would impose a $50 fine on citizens camping alongside highways or exit ramps, as well as require that they participate in community service.
“(In) 1910, (Adolf) Hitler decided to live on the streets for awhile,” he said. “So for two years Hitler lived on the streets and practiced his oratory and body language and how to connect with citizens, and then went on to lead a life that got him in the history books.”
In his bizarre motivational speech, Niceley conceded that Hitler — the Nazi dictator who led Germany to defeat in World War II — wasn’t entirely a success story.
“It’s not a dead end — they can come out of this, these homeless camps, and lead a productive life,” he said. “Or in Hitler’s case, a very unproductive life. I support this bill.”
The 75-year-old conservative was one of four senators in the Tennessee House who in 2009, proposed legal action to force then-president Barack Obama to release his long-form birth certificate. Rolling Stone found footage of Niceley on Tennessee’s state senate floor in October claiming “it’s too early to tell” whether or not the North won the Civil War.
“I think I can tell my grandson that the war between the states is still going on and we’re winning,” he said in that speech.
Niceley’s Twitter profile describes him as a “Farmer, Constitutionalist, Conservative, Traditionalist, Radio Personality, Historian, Gun Owner, Father and Grandfather.”
