Jan 29, 2017 - Politics & Policy
Tim Kaine accuses White House of engaging in "Holocaust denial"
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On Meet the Press today, Sen. Tim Kaine said the White House erred grievously by not explicitly naming Jews on Holocaust Remembrance Day:
Kaine pointed to the White House issuing a blanket visa ban on residents of seven Muslim-majority nations on the same day as the Holocaust remembrance, called it "more than a coincidence," and said:
"When you have the chief political advisor in the White House, Steve Bannon, who is connected with a news organization that traffics in white supremacy and anti-Semitism and they put out a Holocaust statement that omits any mention of Jews.
"Remember, earlier administrations have done these statements. And so the first thing you do is you pull up to see what earlier statements have said. And the earlier statements, President Obama, President Bush always talk about the Holocaust in connection with the slaughter of Jews.
"The final solution was about the slaughter of Jews. We have to remember this. This is what Holocaust denial is. 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."
The White House's defense: Reince Priebus, after saying that of course the Holocaust was bad and that Jews were its targets and that Trump has Jewish family members, told Chuck Todd on the statement: "I don't regret the words."
