No, the White House Did Not Deny the Holocaust

 

At some point, the overwrought and ridiculous accusations against President Trump have to peak. I have a visceral dislike of him and yet those attacking him have gone so far round the bend that I am forced, over and over again, to defend him. No, the White House did not deny the Holocaust in the press release for Holocaust Remembrance Day. To think otherwise is crazy with a side of ridiculous and covered in stupid gravy. Harsh words? Yes. Necessary? Absolutely.

I would have never imagined such claim would exist had I not seen it with my own eyes. I would not have cared if such asinine claims were made by anyone other than Ricochet contributors I respect. Our very own @claireberlinski has bought into this, as has John Podhoretz. Here is the tweet that got me started on this rant today:

When I first saw it I thought “no way that’s true,” so I followed the links. Mark Hoofnagle published a blog post on ScienceBlogs that starts with this:

The White House in its statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day engaged in Holocaust denial. Then they doubled down on the action and via Reince Priebus on Meet the Press expressed no regret about the wording which had no mention of the Jews in their supposed “remembrance”.

It’s possible that Trump and company wrote a poorly-worded press release worthy of this accusation. Performing all due diligence, I went to the source and read the press release. Here is the offending press release in full:

It is with a heavy heart and somber mind that we remember and honor the victims, survivors, heroes of the Holocaust. It is impossible to fully fathom the depravity and horror inflicted on innocent people by Nazi terror.

Yet, we know that in the darkest hours of humanity, light shines the brightest.‎ As we remember those who died, we are deeply grateful to those who risked their lives to save the innocent.

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.

No, the president didn’t specifically say “Jews,” but exactly who the [expletive] else could he be referencing by “the victims…of the Holocaust”? If you read that and think of anyone other than the Jews, or read it to exclude the Jews, then it is an error of reading, not writing.

I understand Trump-Hate because I do a lot of it. I understand wanting to warn of his dangers because I fear them as well. This, however, is reaching way beyond honest criticism and into the realm of histrionics. There is plenty about which to criticize the new president, so there is zero need to invent or imagine things like Holocaust denial.

Stop making me defend the orange ass.

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  1. Judge Mental Member
    Judge Mental
    @JudgeMental

    Titus Techera (View Comment):

    Judge Mental (View Comment):
    Titus, if you don’t think the average American can make a connection between the Holocaust and Jews, then your opinion of us is even lower than I thought.

    And that’s really saying something. ?

    We’re not supposed to blindly defend this incompetence! We’re supposed to use dignified occasions like these speeches to say the basic truths. You never know how effective these speeches are, but they’re worth something.

    Whatever the lefty hysteria–political oratory is a real thing. Hiring people who are not mental midgets to say something you needn’t blush at is not asking for miracles.

    Mr. Trump is able to speak to many Americans in a way that does not make them want to bash their heads against the nearest wall. Others hate his guts, but politics is competitive, so wha’cha gonna do!

    Someone else is capable of saying the basic truths about the Holocaust with some dignity–that also needs to be done.

    Trying to change that statement now will not accomplish what you’re saying though.  It will simply be taken as evidence that the original statement was in fact anti-Semitic.  Maybe they can do better next time.

    • #61
  2. The King Prawn Inactive
    The King Prawn
    @TheKingPrawn

    Titus Techera (View Comment):
    Making excuses for not saying these things, briefly, officially, with dignity is a strange bashfulness.

    I’m not excusing the error; rather, I’m excoriating the critics who are conflating the error with Holocaust denial. There’s a vast chasm between the two treatments of the statement. The error itself was silly and unforced — it was an amateur mistake — but what it was not was Holocaust denial.

    • #62
  3. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Judge Mental (View Comment):

    Titus Techera (View Comment):

    We’re not supposed to blindly defend this incompetence! We’re supposed to use dignified occasions like these speeches to say the basic truths. You never know how effective these speeches are, but they’re worth something.

    Whatever the lefty hysteria–political oratory is a real thing. Hiring people who are not mental midgets to say something you needn’t blush at is not asking for miracles.

    Mr. Trump is able to speak to many Americans in a way that does not make them want to bash their heads against the nearest wall. Others hate his guts, but politics is competitive, so wha’cha gonna do!

    Someone else is capable of saying the basic truths about the Holocaust with some dignity–that also needs to be done.

    Trying to change that statement now will not accomplish what you’re saying though. It will simply be taken as evidence that the original statement was in fact anti-Semitic. Maybe they can do better next time.

    If you cannot think your way out of this partisan quarrel, I’ve no idea what the point is of waiting for a next time. It’ll be less partisan? There’ll be less hysteria? This example won’t be used again, as it were, brought back to mock the Administration?

    Maybe it takes a supreme madness to do the right thing, but I daresay, Mr. Trump’s fate is not in the balance-

    • #63
  4. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    The King Prawn (View Comment):

    Titus Techera (View Comment):
    Making excuses for not saying these things, briefly, officially, with dignity is a strange bashfulness.

    I’m not excusing the error; rather, I’m excoriating the critics who are conflating the error with Holocaust denial. There’s a vast chasm between the two treatments of the statement. The error itself was silly and unforced — it was an amateur mistake — but what it was not was Holocaust denial.

    But that means we end up in a partisan quarrel & lose completely the connection between our speeches & reality.

    Does no one have the guts to ignore the hysteria?

     

    • #64
  5. The King Prawn Inactive
    The King Prawn
    @TheKingPrawn

    Titus Techera (View Comment):
    But that means we end up in a partisan quarrel

    It’s not a partisan quarrel if the unfounded and absurd criticism is coming from within the party. That’s the point you’re missing in this. I expect the left to go crazy and cry crocodile tears whenever Trump does something but not our side. We should, nay we are required to, criticize him when he does something wrong, but this issue does not rise to such an occasion, especially not with the charge of Holocaust denial. Say the statement was incomplete or clumsy or boorish or amateur (which I did), but don’t make the false charge that it is Holocaust denial.

    • #65
  6. The King Prawn Inactive
    The King Prawn
    @TheKingPrawn

    Titus Techera (View Comment):
    Does no one have the guts to ignore the hysteria?

    If the hysteria were coming from the left we would mock it, not ignore it. Coming from the right we must confront it.

    • #66
  7. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    If you want to confront the hysteria, honesty & principle force you also to confront the truth that the hysteria turns into a lie by hyperbole & paranoia.

    & then you should correct the original mistake, too.

    Not to say that there’s no other real way to work for togetherness, agreement, in whatever way it’s possible anymore.

    As for your denial that this is partisanship, I smile: In a country that used to speak of Jeffersonian this, that, or the other–or Jacksonian–or a Roosevelt such & such–or the Reagan revolution–or now Trumpism–you simply seem to me to be ignoring the truth. Partisanship in real America now mean pro- or anti-Trump.

    That’s what this is about!

    Otherwise, people would admit the truth & make the correction. & beyond what’s right, chastize, correct, or ignore the people who are paranoid.

    • #67
  8. The King Prawn Inactive
    The King Prawn
    @TheKingPrawn

    Titus Techera (View Comment):
    Partisanship in real America now mean pro- or anti-Trump.

    That’s what this is about!

    Then we’re lost. American partisanship is not (or should not be) about an individual politician. It is about the parties and the ideas they represent.

    • #68
  9. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    As I said, let’s stop with this extremism. It really is true that Americans formed a party around Jackson & another was truly formed around Lincoln. That important men like FDR or Reagan transform things enormously. Americans love their presidents too much, hate them too much, & name politics after them.

    But it’s not the end of the world.

    Americans are right that ideas are too incorporeal; also, Americans love mediocre men in politics–but then find their mediocre parties not good enough; so it’s inevitable that the energy is in the president. He’s elected by the people knowingly, on purpose, & you know who to praise or blame. He does not rule alone. But he focuses the mind.

    & let’s not forget the real matter. Is anyone–me excepted–who notices that the WH screwed up the statement, saying what it should have been? Or is it just people saying very bad things about each other across this very specific Trump-divide?

    • #69
  10. The King Prawn Inactive
    The King Prawn
    @TheKingPrawn

    Titus Techera (View Comment):
    Is anyone–me excepted–who notices that the WH screwed up the statement, saying what it should have been? Or is it just people saying very bad things about each other across this very specific Trump-divide?

    If anyone else is saying what it should have been their statements are drowned out by the hysterical nonsense.

    • #70
  11. The King Prawn Inactive
    The King Prawn
    @TheKingPrawn

    The headline really should be “Trump fouls a bunt” not that he’s denied the Holocaust.

    • #71
  12. Ryan M(cPherson) Inactive
    Ryan M(cPherson)
    @RyanM

    Amy Schley (View Comment):

    The King Prawn (View Comment):

    JPod’s answer:

    To universalize it to “all those who suffered” is to scrub the Holocaust of its meaning.

    This, at least, is an argument, though I don’t think it is a very strong one. He may be right, but I still don’t think it rises to the level of Holocaust denial. It’s still just insensitivity and/or idiocy.

    I read that as “We’re special! This is our day and we don’t want to share it!”

    Humans have been killing humans because they were a different kind of human throughout human history. In the 20th Century, humanity just gained the ability to do it faster and more efficiently. The Armenian genocide, the Holodomor, the Killing Fields … Are we never allowed to use the word Holocaust unless Germans are killing Jews?

    What made the Holocaust wrong was not that Germans were killing Jews; it’s that people were killing people to kill a culture. And that is what the Turks were trying to do to Armenians in 1915, and the Russians to Ukrainians in 1932, and the Russians to the ethnic Germans in Eastern Europe in 1947, and Cambodians to their Westernized citizens in 1975, and a hundred more times throughout the centuries before and after 1941-1945.

    Totally agree. I’ve always had this problem with JPod. Everything is anti-Semitism, and at some point, you just sound whiny and self obsessed.

    • #72
  13. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    The King Prawn (View Comment):

    Titus Techera (View Comment):
    Is anyone–me excepted–who notices that the WH screwed up the statement, saying what it should have been? Or is it just people saying very bad things about each other across this very specific Trump-divide?

    If anyone else is saying what it should have been their statements are drowned out by the hysterical nonsense.

    So what is anyone doing who’s not now anti-Trump? Ricochet–nary a peep? You seen something on any of the outlets you follow? We have our own echo chamber! How do the hysterical people who are anti-Trump dominate our minds, too!

    Also, have you seen anti-Trump people say: Wait, that’s going too far, but there was a real problem!

    How about pro-Trump people saying: He screwed up, but it’s not the end of the world, here’s what we should be saying instead & let’s deal with it!

    • #73
  14. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Ryan M(cPherson) (View Comment):Totally agree. I’ve always had this problem with JPod. Everything is anti-Semitism, and at some point, you just sound whiny and self obsessed.

    Let’s be serious about this. Germans wanted to get rid of Jews. That’s what makes the Holocaust what it is: They were systematically targeted & there was no doubt that Nazis are anti-Jew from the get go: From long before that.

    Way before the industrial-scale murder of the death camps, up to the aftermath of the Anschluss, up to a half-million Jews were forced in various ways to get out of Germany & Austria.

    As for being against ‘a culture’, that’s a hilarious achievement of abstraction. You think Christian Jews or atheist Jews were spared? The assimilated Jews were ok, but only Eastern Jews persecuted? What the hell has culture to do with anything!

    • #74
  15. The King Prawn Inactive
    The King Prawn
    @TheKingPrawn

    Titus Techera (View Comment):

    The King Prawn (View Comment):

    Titus Techera (View Comment):
    Is anyone–me excepted–who notices that the WH screwed up the statement, saying what it should have been? Or is it just people saying very bad things about each other across this very specific Trump-divide?

    If anyone else is saying what it should have been their statements are drowned out by the hysterical nonsense.

    So what is anyone doing who’s not now anti-Trump? Ricochet–nary a peep? You seen something on any of the outlets you follow? We have our own echo chamber! How do the hysterical people who are anti-Trump dominate our minds, too!

    Also, have you seen anti-Trump people say: Wait, that’s going too far, but there was a real problem!

    How about pro-Trump people saying: He screwed up, but it’s not the end of the world, here’s what we should be saying instead & let’s deal with it!

    I am an anti-Trump person saying the criticism is overblown. Did you actually read the OP?

    • #75
  16. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Yes, I did. For all your Trump-hating cred, your best understanding of the statement is to blame the error on readers! Do you have any idea what public statements are for!

    You cannot even acknowledge it does fail of its purpose, aside from any ascription of ill-intent.

    • #76
  17. CM Inactive
    CM
    @CM

    Titus Techera (View Comment):
    You cannot even acknowledge it does fail of its purpose, aside from any ascription of ill-intent.

    I haven’t been convinced it does fall short of its intent.

    Being among the younger group here, I knew what the Holocaust was and its import to Jews. It wasn’t until recently that I had any idea anyone other than Jews were killed.

    If any group has been forgotten in the aftermath of the holocaust, it would be those victims.

    • #77
  18. Ryan M(cPherson) Inactive
    Ryan M(cPherson)
    @RyanM

    Titus Techera (View Comment):

    Ryan M(cPherson) (View Comment):Totally agree. I’ve always had this problem with JPod. Everything is anti-Semitism, and at some point, you just sound whiny and self obsessed.

    Let’s be serious about this. Germans wanted to get rid of Jews. That’s what makes the Holocaust what it is: They were systematically targeted & there was no doubt that Nazis are anti-Jew from the get go: From long before that.

    Way before the industrial-scale murder of the death camps, up to the aftermath of the Anschluss, up to a half-million Jews were forced in various ways to get out of Germany & Austria.

    As for being against ‘a culture’, that’s a hilarious achievement of abstraction. You think Christian Jews or atheist Jews were spared? The assimilated Jews were ok, but only Eastern Jews persecuted? What the hell has culture to do with anything!

    Poor wording, likely unintentional. Not anti-Semitism. If they were anti Semitic, they would have simply ignored Holocaust remembrance day. When I read that, I thought it was well written. Didn’t even cross my mind that they might’ve said Jew. It actually seems pretty normal to word it that way. This is a lot of nonsense about literally nothing.

    • #78
  19. The King Prawn Inactive
    The King Prawn
    @TheKingPrawn

    Titus Techera (View Comment):
    Yes, I did. For all your Trump-hating cred, your best understanding of the statement is to blame the error on readers! Do you have any idea what public statements are for!

    You cannot even acknowledge it does fail of its purpose, aside from any ascription of ill-intent.

    Again, that is not the purpose of the OP, and I covered it sufficiently in the comments. I never say everything I think about a topic in the OP because that would not leave anything for the comments.

    Can you acknowledge that people ostensibly on the right acting like people of the left is not helpful to any cause and is actually detrimental to the cause of liberty in American politics?

     

    • #79
  20. Tom Meyer, Ed. Member
    Tom Meyer, Ed.
    @tommeyer

    The King Prawn (View Comment):

     

    Titus Techera (View Comment):Yes, I did. For all your Trump-hating cred, your best understanding of the statement is to blame the error on readers! Do you have any idea what public statements are for!

    You cannot even acknowledge it does fail of its purpose, aside from any ascription of ill-intent.

    I am an anti-Trump person saying the criticism is overblown. Did you actually read the OP?

    Gentlemen, please de-escalate this. @thekingprawn @titustechera

    • #80
  21. Ryan M(cPherson) Inactive
    Ryan M(cPherson)
    @RyanM

    The fact that it references Jews is so obviously implied that it is insane to think otherwise. But that’s what folks like JPod do. It’s annoying.

    • #81
  22. Umbra Fractus Inactive
    Umbra Fractus
    @UmbraFractus

    The King Prawn (View Comment):

    I am an anti-Trump person saying the criticism is overblown. Did you actually read the OP?

    I’m anti-Trump too, and I didn’t notice there was anything “wrong” until people told me what I was supposed to be looking for.

    This entire controversy is asinine. When someone mentions the Holocaust, the Jews are implied. To complain that they didn’t make it explicit is just looking for a reason to be offended.

    • #82
  23. Judge Mental Member
    Judge Mental
    @JudgeMental

    #77 & #78.  That’s where I’m at, too.

    • #83
  24. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    CM (View Comment):

    Titus Techera (View Comment):
    You cannot even acknowledge it does fail of its purpose, aside from any ascription of ill-intent.

    I haven’t been convinced it does fall short of its intent.

    Being among the younger group here, I knew what the Holocaust was and its import to Jews. It wasn’t until recently that I had any idea anyone other than Jews were killed.

    If any group has been forgotten in the aftermath of the holocaust, it would be those victims.

    None were mentioned! How is this going to reach anyone with news that it wasn’t just Jews! It’s an even worse failure by your standard, which strikes me as a reasonable standard!

    • #84
  25. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Ryan M(cPherson) (View Comment):

    Titus Techera (View Comment):

    Ryan M(cPherson) (View Comment):Totally agree. I’ve always had this problem with JPod. Everything is anti-Semitism, and at some point, you just sound whiny and self obsessed.

    Let’s be serious about this. Germans wanted to get rid of Jews. That’s what makes the Holocaust what it is: They were systematically targeted & there was no doubt that Nazis are anti-Jew from the get go: From long before that.

    Way before the industrial-scale murder of the death camps, up to the aftermath of the Anschluss, up to a half-million Jews were forced in various ways to get out of Germany & Austria.

    As for being against ‘a culture’, that’s a hilarious achievement of abstraction. You think Christian Jews or atheist Jews were spared? The assimilated Jews were ok, but only Eastern Jews persecuted? What the hell has culture to do with anything!

    Poor wording, likely unintentional. Not anti-Semitism. If they were anti Semitic, they would have simply ignored Holocaust remembrance day. When I read that, I thought it was well written. Didn’t even cross my mind that they might’ve said Jew. It actually seems pretty normal to word it that way. This is a lot of nonsense about literally nothing.

    Ryan, nothing of history lasts in America unless it keeps being mentioned by anyone who matters.

    If conservatives want to stop complaining that the American people don’t know their history, fine…

    • #85
  26. Tom Meyer, Ed. Member
    Tom Meyer, Ed.
    @tommeyer

    The King Prawn:No, the president didn’t specifically say “Jews,” but exactly who the [expletive] else could he be referencing by “the victims…of the Holocaust”? If you read that and think of anyone other than the Jews, or read it to exclude the Jews, then it is an error or reading, not writing.

    Umbra Fractus (View Comment):

    When someone mentions the Holocaust, the Jews are implied. To complain that they didn’t make it explicit is just looking for a reason to be offended.

    These sum-up my take as well.

    • #86
  27. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Tom Meyer, Ed. (View Comment):

    The King Prawn (View Comment):

    Titus Techera (View Comment):Yes, I did. For all your Trump-hating cred, your best understanding of the statement is to blame the error on readers! Do you have any idea what public statements are for!

    You cannot even acknowledge it does fail of its purpose, aside from any ascription of ill-intent.

    I am an anti-Trump person saying the criticism is overblown. Did you actually read the OP?

    Gentlemen, please de-escalate this. @thekingprawn @titustechera

    Mr. Meyer, were you called in here by flagging? If so, let me apologize. I don’t want to make anyone feel like they have to throw a flag.

    If not, I think you can trust that we’re all adults here. You have no way of knowing this, but I shook hands with the Prawn–with everyone actually in this conversation. We’ll deal with things here alright, I’m sure.

    • #87
  28. Amy Schley Coolidge
    Amy Schley
    @AmySchley

    Titus Techera (View Comment):
    Ryan, nothing of history lasts in America unless it keeps being mentioned by anyone who matters.

    If conservatives want to stop complaining that the American people don’t know their history, fine…

    Which is why the forcible deportation and murder of two million Germans in 1947-48 isn’t even a footnote.  It would rather destroy the whole “Never Again” self-congratulation to point out that at the same time Nazis were being hanged for ethnic cleansing, we were turning a blind eye to it in Eastern Europe.

    • #88
  29. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Amy Schley (View Comment):

    Titus Techera (View Comment):
    Ryan, nothing of history lasts in America unless it keeps being mentioned by anyone who matters.

    If conservatives want to stop complaining that the American people don’t know their history, fine…

    Which is why the forcible deportation and murder of two million Germans in 1947-48 isn’t even a footnote. It would rather destroy the whole “Never Again” self-congratulation to point out that at the same time Nazis were being hanged for ethnic cleansing, we were turning a blind eye to it in Eastern Europe.

    Yes, ma’am, I know a bit about that. I’d rather people say more, learn more, know more. Nothing is not a good alternative to it.

    • #89
  30. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Actually, correction: Umbra was around here–never met him. Know the other guys. I’d quarrel with them any day, especially if there are drinks involved.

    • #90
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