The White House is doubling down on its decision to exclude any mention of the six million Jews who died during the Holocaust in its pathetically glib Remembrance Day statement. Maybe just don’t issue one at all if you’re going to fuck it up this badly, ya know? Especially if it’s going to be on same day in which you issue a vile blanket ban on refugees.
The whole thing is only three perfunctory paragraphs long, but here’s the richest part:
“In the name of the perished, I pledge to do everything in my power throughout my Presidency, and my life, to ensure that the forces of evil never again defeat the powers of good. Together, we will make love and tolerance prevalent throughout the world.”
Haha OK. Talking hair pile Hope Hicks told CNN on Saturday that “despite what the media reports, we are an incredibly inclusive group and we took into account all of those who suffered.”
Then she coughed up a link to a Huffington Post story (the media comes in awfully handy when it serves your interests, huh?) that references the genocide’s five million other victims, including “priests, gypsies, people with mental or physical disabilities, communists, trade unionists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, anarchists, Poles and other Slavic peoples, and resistance fighters.”
CNN came back with what appears to be a craven attempt to throw Trump a bone:
Asked if the White House was suggesting President Donald Trump didn’t mention Jews as victims of the Holocaust because he didn’t want to offend the other people the Nazis targeted and killed, Hicks replied, “it was our honor to issue a statement in remembrance of this important day.”
Hicks is only programmed to answer in pre-installed soundbites, which is why her response makes no sense in context. Luckily it’s been only nine days (??!!), so she’s still under warranty.
Jonathan Greenblatt, head of the Anti-Defamation League, called the statement’s exclusion of both the Jewish people and anti-Semitism “puzzling and troubling.”
According to the Independent, Hicks’ initial rebuttal referred to a statement from Ronald Lauder, head of the World Jewish Congress:
“It does no honour to the millions of Jews murdered in the Holocaust to play politics with their memory,” the Lauder statement read. “Any fair reading of the White House statement today on the International Holocaust Memorial Day will see it appropriately commemorates the suffering and the heroism that mark that dark chapter in modern history.”
Lauder has in the past vigorously defended Trump, saying that there’s “not an anti-Semitic bone” in his old Wharton pal’s body. He also said, hilariously:
“At the same time, Donald Trump is somebody who has a world view. I must tell you in the Middle East he’s respected.”
Nice that we’ve cleared that up.