The weekly Kansas newspaper is in hot water, after its publisher, the head of a county Republican Party, published a cartoon on the newspaper’s Facebook page that appears to equate the Democratic governor’s mask layout with the Holocaust.

The cartoon, released on the Anderson County Review’s Facebook page on Friday, is Gov. It shows that Laura Kelly wears a mask with a Jewish Star of David and depicts a drawing of people loaded on train cars. Subtitle, “Locking Laura says: Put on your mask… and step into the cattle cart.”

The Facebook post coincided with the day when Kelly’s mask pattern aimed at the spread of the coronavirus came into effect. The message has collected more than 3,000 comments and nearly 1,000 shares since then.

The Anderson County Review was not available to comment on Sunday. In an email to the Associated Press, the newspaper’s owner and publisher, Dane Hicks, said he plans to publish the cartoon in the next edition of the newspaper on Tuesday.

Catholic Kelly said, “Mr. Hicks’ decision to post anti-Jewish images is extremely aggressive and needs to be lifted immediately. “

However, Hicks said political cartoons are “gross extreme cartoons designed to provoke debate” and “bait for the market of ideas”.

“The issue here is the government excess that marked the management of Governor Kelly,” he said.

As for the cartoon’s reference to the Holocaust, Hicks noted that President Trump’s critics repeatedly compared him with Adolf Hitler, and said, “There is definitely more evidence in this editorial cartoon style about this kind of totalitarianism in Kelly’s actions. Trump’s critics do this, but they continue on a daily basis. “

According to the Kansas Newspaper, Hicks’s newspaper is located in the Garnett Anderson County seat approximately 65 miles southwest of Kansas City and has a circulation of about 2,100.

Hicks is also the president of Anderson County’s GOP. Kansas Republican Party President Michael Kuckelman said it was “inappropriate” to send cartoons in a text.

But at the same time, Kuckelman, a lawyer, added that “On the Facebook page, the newspaper and media have a large area with the First Amendment (which guarantees freedom of expression and press) to the US Constitution”.

Cartoon critics asked the Republican Party and GOP legislative leaders to reject the cartoon and Hicks. Hicks reduced some of these critics to social media as “liberal Marxist parasites” and said, “As a traditional American, they are my enemy.”

Kelly issued the order due to the resurrection of reported coronavirus cases, which increased the state’s total to about 16,000 as of Friday, when Kansas ended its worst two-week increase since the pandemic began. The state reported deaths related to 277 COVID-19. The number of infections is thought to be much higher because many people have not been tested and studies show people that the virus can be transmitted without feeling sick.

The state health department reported only four coronavirus cases for Anderson County, all since May 8.

Associated Press contributed to this report.