Amid protests and legal challenges over President Trump’s immigration order, the White House also found itself on the defensive this weekend about a normally routine statement about International Holocaust Remembrance Day that drew criticism and scorn.

The statement released on Friday failed to mention Jews or anti-Semitism, something that past presidential statements had done without fail.

Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, defended the language in a Sunday interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” telling the host, Chuck Todd, “I don’t regret the words.”

Mr. Priebus continued, “I mean, everyone’s suffering in the Holocaust including obviously, all of the Jewish people affected and the miserable genocide that occurred — it’s something that we consider to be extraordinarily sad.”