Trump’s press secretary said the president went ‘out of his way’ to recognize genocide in defense of omitted references to Jewish people and antisemitism

After days of criticism for omitting any mention of Jews or antisemitism from a White House statement commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the press secretary, Sean Spicer, lauded Trump for going “out of his way to recognize the Holocaust” and branded critics as “pathetic”.

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Spicer claimed “by and large the president has been praised” for the brief statement released by the White House press office, which represented a break from past precedent as both George W Bush and Barack Obama had invariably mentioned the targeting of Jews by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust, which represented the systematic genocide of European Jewry.

Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, branded the Trump statement “puzzling and troubling”.

White House spokespeople defended the omission at the weekend, including the chief of staff, Reince Priebus, who told NBC’s Chuck Todd on Sunday “I don’t regret the words,” adding: “I mean, everyone’s suffering in the Holocaust, including, obviously, all of the Jewish people.”

Trump aide Hope Hicks forwarded to CNN a link to a Huffington Post article about the millions of people who were killed by Nazis for their ethnicities, sexual orientation, and political or religious beliefs, and told the channel: “Despite what the media reports, we are an incredibly inclusive group and we took into account all of those who suffered.”

In response, the Republican Jewish Coalition issued a statement expressing its disapproval. “As supporters of President Trump, we know that he holds in his heart the memory of the six million victims of the Holocaust, and is committed not just to their memory, but ensuring it never happens again,” said spokesman Fred Brown.

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However, he added: “The lack of a direct statement about the suffering of the Jewish people during the Holocaust was an unfortunate omission. History unambiguously shows the purpose of the Nazis’ final solution was the extermination of the Jews of Europe. We hope, going forward, he conveys those feelings when speaking about the Holocaust.”

Few Republican senators commented on the White House’s omission. Florida senator Marco Rubio expressed his dismay over the statement, while insisting that the White House meant nothing “bad” by it. “Clearly, the Jewish people suffered disproportionately and massively in the Holocaust,” Rubio told the Guardian.

“It’s true other groups were involved, but the vast majority of people who died at the hands of the Nazi monsters were Jews,” he said. “I don’t think [the White House] meant anything bad by what they did, and I think they should have just said that if they had to do it over again, they would have written it different. That probably would have been the best way to address the questions and concerns that have arisen.”

Shortly after Spicer’s briefing, the United States Holocaust Museum delivered an implicit rebuke of the White House and Trump in statement. “The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored murder of six million Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators,” read the statement. “Nazi ideology cast the world as a racial struggle, and the singular focus on the total destruction of every Jewish person was at its racist core. Millions of other innocent civilians were persecuted and murdered by the Nazis, but the elimination of Jews was central to Nazi policy. As Elie Wiesel said, ‘Not all victims were Jews, but all Jews were victims.’”

The Trump statement was praised by an antisemitic website for “exceeding expectations in pushing back against Jewish supremacy”.

At his daily press briefing at the White House on Monday, Spicer railed against critics, saying: “It is pathetic that people are picking on a statement.” He went on to attack the Obama administration for actions Spicer termed anti-Israel, including the Iran nuclear deal. Spicer found it infuriating “to compare a statement that remembers the Holocaust with the last eight years and the disrespect that was shown to Israel”.

In his remarks on International Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2016, Obama warned of “the rise of antisemitism” around the world and stated: “When any Jew anywhere is targeted just for being Jewish, we all have to respond … We are all Jews.”