Martin Bashir   |  May 24, 2012

Chuck Schumer rebukes Grover Norquist on Nazi quip

MSNBC’s Martin Bashir looks at today’s speech by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., about legislation to penalize Americans, like Facebook billionaire Eduardo Saverin, for avoiding taxes by renouncing their citizenship – and his response to anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist, who compared Schumer’s bill to legislation from Nazi Germany.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> the decision by facebook founder eduardo saverin to renounce his citizenship, take up residence in singapore and duck taxes on his massive wealth spurred some members of congress including chuck schumer to take action. some crowned him a hero while criticizing a greedy american tax system and of course, laying blame squarely at the feet of the democratic party . anti-tax guru grover norquist not surprisingly was among the most outspoken critics drawing a crude analogy between schumer's effort and jews trying to flee nazi, germany. he told the hill, i think schumer can probably find the legislation to do this. it existed in germany in the 1930s . he probably just plagiarized it from the original german. earlier today, senator schumer took to the floor of the senate and offered a stern rebuke to mr. norquist reminding us of the two definition of heroism and invoking a very personal history.

>> i know a thing or two about what nazis did. some of my relatives were killed by them. and saying that a person who made their fortune specifically because of the positive elements in american society in turn has a responsibility to do right by america is not even on the same planet as comparing to what the nazis did to the jews.

>> a dignified response to a most undignified comparison. we say to you, mr. saverin, assuming your facebook investment survives its rocky start. enjoy your singapore sling . as they say in my country, go play with