Former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, seeking the GOP Senate nod to challenge Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), cited Nazi Germany in an email to supporters Monday about Independence Day.

“On July 4, 1941, as Hitler’s Reich spread its influence across Europe, President Roosevelt used a radio address to proclaim the Fourth of July holiday as an example to the world in its fight for freedom,” he wrote. 

Hasner quoted Roosevelt: “The fundamentals of 1776 are being struck down abroad, and definitely, they are threatened here.”

“Today, the biggest threat to our liberty is not a foreign government, but our own,” Hasner wrote.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee flagged for reporters a St. Petersburg Times post headlined: “Has Adam Hasner gone off the deep end?”