The White House aide credited with crafting the Trump administration’s much-criticized statement for International Holocaust Remembrance Day called the controversy “feigned outrage by the Left.”
Boris Epshteyn, assistant communications director and special assistant to President Trump, defended the statement and the president in an interview Thursday with the Washington Examiner‘s weekly “Examining Politics” podcast.
“The statement beautifully honored those victims, heroes, survivors of the Holocaust and the Jewish victims, survivors of the Holocaust, including my ancestors,” Epshteyn said. “I had family die in the Holocaust and I had family survive the Holocaust. I had family who fought against the Nazis in World War II, and I think the statement beautifully commemorated that. And again, the feigned outrage by the Left is disappointing, but Americans have their right to the First Amendment, and they can voice their concern. But the president is a great friend to the Jewish people and a great friend to the state Israel.”
While last week’s statement mentioned the millions of innocents murdered by the Nazis during World War II, it failed to specifically highlight the genocide against the Jews, setting off controversy. The Nazis specifically and systematically set about to exterminate the Jewish people, murdering 6 million of them. An additional 6 to 7 million non-Jews were also murdered by the Nazis.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer earlier this week called the criticism of the statement “pathetic” and said it “was written with the help of an individual who’s both Jewish and the descendant of Holocaust survivors.”
Epshteyn declined to take full credit for authoring the statement: “It was the president’s statement — the team wrote the statement and I’m proud to be part of a diverse and very strong team here that works for the president of the United States and for the American people.”
“Examining Politics” is available on PodcastOne.com, iTunes and the Examiner’s website.
