Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary had strong words for people who took issue with President Trump deliberately omitting Jewish people from his holocaust Remembrance Day statement.
The White House's statement says that it honors all the victims who were systematically exterminated by the Nazis in WWII. This has caused a major issue with Jewish groups on both sides of the aisle who believe that the systematic way Jewish people were singled out by the Nazi regime to be worth a special mention. President Obama and President George W. Bush used the day to honor Jewish people.
President misses point
According to the Anti-Defamation League's Johnathan Greenblatt, Spicer and Trump miss the point of Holocaust Remembrance Day. Its purpose isn't to honor the people who suffered during the Holocaust but to make sure people don't forget that the major goal of the Nazis was to kill every Jew in Europe.
Many Jewish groups feel that the latter point is especially important. With the rise of the far right, many people are starting to take things like Holocaust denial seriously, thanks in part to the rise of conspiracy theory Web sites that are typically operated by or sympathetic to white nationalists. Countries across the Muslim world as well as groups like ISIS, don't think the Holocaust ever happened.
Greenblatt notes that omitting the suffering of the Jewish people, as Spicer did, is very common among nationalist groups across Europe.
Spicer openly wrote off the condemnation from the Anti-Defamation League and several other groups "nitpicking." Spicer said Trump simply didn't want to exclude any group that suffered during the Holocaust.
Spicer lashes out
Spicer defends the statement as being co-written by a descendant of Jewish Holocaust survivors, He called the criticism of the statement "pathetic." He also attacked the previous administration for their perceived lack of respect towards Israel and wondered where groups like the Anti-Defamation League were.
"Where were the questions about the U.N. Security Council resolution? The idea of this unprecedented step that the outgoing administration took as a massive slap in the face of Israel. Where were the questions then?" Spicer asked.
