Washington (dpa) – White House spokesman Sean Spicer was forced to make multiple apologies Tuesday after he apparently overlooked the Holocaust and Adolf Hitler’s use of gas chambers to commit genocide against Jews. The gaffe occurred as Spicer compared Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons against his own people to Hitler’s actions in World…
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National Democratic party chairman Tom Perez issued the following statement:
Friend — what I’m about to share with you is shocking and tone-deaf.
During today’s press briefing, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer casually dismissed the history of the Holocaust, denying that Hitler “gassed his own people” and claiming that he “didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons.”
Even if this was a case of simple ignorance, there has been a vein of anti-Semitism running through the Trump administration since Day One.
Denying the atrocities committed by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime is a tried-and-true tactic used by neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups that have become emboldened since Donald Trump first announced his campaign for president. Some of those groups were quick to heap praise on Spicer for his comments today, just as they did when the White House failed to mention the Jewish community in their statement marking Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The Trump administration has similarly dismissed the rise in hate crimes since Trump was elected and, the increase in bomb threats against Jewish community centers, and the desecration of Jewish cemeteries. At a recent press conference, Donald Trump personally called the Jewish reporter asking about these acts of hatred a liar.
And Trump has elevated white supremacists to senior positions in his administration. At one point, he even rearranged the National Security Council to include his white supremacist chief strategist, Steve Bannon.
Rejecting and denouncing anti-Semitism from the White House is a low-enough bar that even this administration can clear.
The Trump administration must apologize for this outrageous statement and their pattern of anti-Semitism, and fire white supremacists like Steve Bannon. Now.
The American Jewish Committee issued the following statement:
– “AJC is astonished by White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s comment today that Adolph Hitler did not use chemical weapons. What did the Nazis use to exterminate millions of Jews if not chemicals in their death camps?” said AJC CEO David Harris.
Spicer mentioned Hitler when speaking about Syrian President Assad. “Any comparisons between Hitler and other dictators, or between the Holocaust and other tragedies, such as Syria, are tricky and not advisable,” said Harris. “The conflict in Syria is horrific, and Assad’s regular use of chemical weapons, decades after they were banned, is abominable. But the uniqueness of the Nazi killing machine’s targeting of one people, Jews, and use of chemical gases to kill them should never be forgotten.”
White Plains, NY (Press Release) – Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey (D-Rockland/Westchester), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, released the following statement on White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s comments regarding the Holocaust:
“It is deeply disturbing that the President’s chief spokesman has either a cavalier aversion to facts, is completely unmoored from reality, or both.
“Instead of articulating a clear, comprehensive strategy toward Syria, Sean Spicer chose the first day of Passover to repeatedly downplay the horrors of the Holocaust.
“Mr. Spicer’s lack of credibility renders his multiple clarifications meaningless. He must apologize and resign immediately.”