Illinois senator apologizes for Nazi remark

Illinois Sen. Donne Trotter has apologized for remarks that compared a member of Gov. Pat Quinn’s cabinet to a Nazi.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports (http://bit.ly/10KQcHc) that Trotter apologized in a statement Tuesday to Julie Hamos, who is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. Trotter says his comments were “inappropriate and wrong.”

Trotter’s original comment came in an interview with public radio station WUIS-FM in Springfield He likened Democrat Quinn’s support for Hamos to Adolf Hitler’s support for Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels (GUR’-buhls).

The Chicago Jewish Federation has condemned Trotter’s remark.

Hamos heads the Department of Healthcare and Family Services. The Illinois Senate’s African-American and Latino caucuses have been pushing unsuccessfully for Quinn to replace her. They object to health care cuts affecting the poor and disabled.