Sen. Tim Kaine on Sunday likened President Trump’s advisers to “Holocaust deniers” after the White House’s official statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day failed to mention Jews or Judaism.
Mr. Kaine said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that it wasn’t a coincidence the omission came the same day Mr. Trump signed an executive order temporarily banning refugees from seven predominantly Muslim countries.
“This was horribly, horribly mishandled,” the Virginia Democrat and Hillary Clinton’s former running mate told NBC’s Chuck Todd. “I think all of these things are happening together.”
Mr. Kaine said the president’s chief political adviser, former Breitbart News CEO Stephen Bannon, is “connected with a news organization that traffics in white supremacy and anti-Semitism,” so it’s not surprising they would put out a Holocaust statement omitting reference to Jewish persecution.
“Remember, earlier administrations have done these statements,” Mr. Kaine said. “President Obama and President Bush always talked about the Holocaust in connection with the slaughter of Jews. The ’Final Solution’ was about the slaughter of Jews. We have remember this.
“This is what Holocaust denial is,” he continued. “It’s either to deny that it happened or many Holocaust deniers acknowledge, ’Oh, yeah, people were killed but it was a lot of innocent people, Jews weren’t targeted.’ The fact that they did that and imposed this religious test against Muslims in the executive orders on the same day, this is not a coincidence.”
Mr. Trump’s order, which sparked protests at airports across the nation over the weekend, temporarily bans travel from seven Muslim-majority countries — Syria, Sudan, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Somalia and Libya — and suspends all refugee admission for 120 days.
The order came the same day the administration came under fire from Jewish groups for omitting the suffering of Jews under Nazi rule in its official statement marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said in a separate interview on “Meet the Press” that they meant “no harm or ill will” by the statement and that the administration sought to recognize “everyone’s suffering in the Holocaust,” including the Jewish people.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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