Reince Priebus Affirms Trump Admin's Mminimizing the Holocaust

Reince Priebus affirms Trump administration's minimizing
the Holocaust, (NBC News)

White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, has no "regret" about the Trump administration's planned public minimization of the attempted destruction of European Jews, marked at Holocaust Remembrance Day observances around the world last week, (New York Times), (Meet the Press), (Commentary Magazine), (Mal Contends), (Talking Points Memo), (Time Magazine), (Washington Post), (NBC News).

Priebus, the former chair of the Republican Party of Wisconsin (RPW), made his political career working with Gov. Scott Walker in defaming ethnic minorities and inflaming racism as pillars of the RPW's whites-first approach to Wisconsin politics.

As Trump has staffed his adminstration with open white supremacist allies such as Steven Bannon and Priebus, his pursuing policies appealing to the Alt Right has drawn fast opposition at this 10-day point of Trump assuming office.

Holocaust minimization, repeated over the weekend as a deliberate adminstration objective, has set the Trump adminstration as overt political supporters of fascism in a development that has occurred so rapidly the political culture is still puzzling over how to respond.

Transcript of Todd and Priebus, (with video), are below, and show a clumsy Priebus saying the Holocaust is a "horrible event," concluding:

I'm trying to clear it up for you. I mean, everyone's suffering in the Holocaust including obviously all of the Jewish people affected and the miserable genocide that occurred is something that we consider to be extraordinarily sad and something that can never be forgotten and something that if we could wipe it off of the history books we could. But we can't. And it's terrible. I mean, I don't know what more to tell you. 

From Meet the Press, (NBC News):

CHUCK TODD:

Want to move onto a couple of other things. There was an issue with on Friday the White House put out a statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day. And there wasn't a mention of Jews in the statement of any, of the victims of the Holocaust that a majority of them were Jewish.

Many of us thought it was an error. You guys were there early. And then it turns out it was not. John Podhoretz, a conservative columnist from Commentary magazine wrote this, "The Final Solution was aimed solely at the Jews. The Holocaust was about the Jews. There is no 'proud' way to offer a remembrance of the Holocaust that does not reflect that simple, awful world historical fact. To universalize it to, quote, 'All those who suffered,' is to scrub the Holocaust of its meaning." Mr. Priebus, do you understand why many Jews were offended by the White House's decision not to note that the Holocaust was about eradicating the Jews?

REINCE PRIEBUS:

Well, I recognize, in fact, obviously that that was what the Holocaust was about. And it's a horrible event. And obviously a miserable time in history that we remember here at the White House and certainly will never forget the Jewish people that suffered in World War II.

And obviously still incredible wounds that remain in a time in history that was of great, incredible, horrific magnitude. And everyone's heart here is impacted by the memory of that terrible time. And so for the record, that's the case. And--

CHUCK TODD:

Do you regret--

REINCE PRIEBUS:

--certainly we don't mean--

CHUCK TODD:

--does the president regret not--

REINCE PRIEBUS:

--any ill-will to anybody.

CHUCK TODD:

Do you regret--

REINCE PRIEBUS:

I don't about regret. It's just-- No.

CHUCK TODD:

--the statement?

REINCE PRIEBUS:

There's no--

CHUCK TODD:

There's no regret not acknowledging the pain that--

REINCE PRIEBUS:

We acknowledge it. We acknowledge the--

CHUCK TODD:

But you didn't--

REINCE PRIEBUS:

--horrible time of the Holocaust.

CHUCK TODD:

--but why white-wash--

REINCE PRIEBUS:

--and what it meant for history, and so.

CHUCK TODD:

--but why white-wash Jews from that statement?

REINCE PRIEBUS:

I'm not white-washing anything, Chuck. I just told--

CHUCK TODD:

The statement did.

REINCE PRIEBUS:

--you that it was horrible. And, well, I'm telling you now that that's the way we feel about it. And it's a terrible time in history. And obviously I think you know that President Trump has dear family members that are Jewish. And there was no harm or ill-will or offense intended by any of that.

CHUCK TODD:

But you-- So you don't-- But you don't regret the statement. You don't regret the words that were chosen in the statement and the words--

REINCE PRIEBUS:

I don't regret the words, Chuck.

CHUCK TODD:

--that were not included?

REINCE PRIEBUS:

I'm trying to clear it up for you. I mean, everyone's suffering in the Holocaust including obviously all of the Jewish people affected and the miserable genocide that occurred is something that we consider to be extraordinarily sad and something that can never be forgotten and something that if we could wipe it off of the history books we could. But we can't. And it's terrible. I mean, I don't know what more to tell you. ...

Priebus: Holocaust Statement 'Isn't Whitewashing Anything'

Trump's Holocaust Memorial Day Proclamation Just Got Much Worse

George Grosz, God of War, 1940 -
Fear of the Other

The White House failure to mention the destruction of European Jews and anti-Semitism in its statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day occurred because the White House is "incredibly inclusive" and takes "into account all of those who suffered," White House spokesperson Hope Hicks said in remarks to CNN this weekend, (Tapper, CNN).

The explanation by Hicks pleads that so many millions were slaughtered in the Holocaust that mentioning the European Jews is not consonant with the stated White House commitment to inclusion.

That Hicks' remarks are nonsense threatens to blow into a controversy the likes of which not even Trump has yet seen.

Millions of Americans openly assert Trump is a fascist and white supremacist, abetted by white supremacist and chief White House political advisor, Stephen K. Bannon.

The mission of International Holocaust Remembrance Day is to bear witness today, and the suggestion that inclusion compels the White House to not mention Jews and anti-Semitism is scandalous.

Writes CNN's Jake Tapper:

The presidential reference to the 'innocent people' victimized by the Nazis without a mention of Jews or anti-Semitism by the White House on International Holocaust Remembrance Day was a stark contrast to statements by former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Anti-Defamation League Director Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted that the "@WhiteHouse statement on #HolocaustMemorialDay, misses that it was six million Jews who perished, not just 'innocent people' and 'Puzzling and troubling @WhiteHouse #HolocaustMemorialDay stmt has no mention of Jews. GOP and Dem. presidents have done so in the past.'

Asked about the White House explanation that the President didn't want to exclude any of the other groups Nazis killed by specifically mentioning Jews, Greenblatt told CNN that the United Nations established International Holocaust Remembrance Day not only because of Holocaust denial but also because so many countries -- Iran, Russia, Poland, and Hungary, for example -- specifically refuse to acknowledge Hitler's attempt to exterminate Jews, 'opting instead to talk about generic suffering rather than recognizing this catastrophic incident for what is was: the intended genocide of the Jewish people.' 

The latest outrage by the White House follows Trump's executive order banning Muslims from seven countries from entering the United States in an act that signals Trump's open commitment to racism and Islamophobia as official policy.