Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Hillary Clinton V.P. Tim Kaine Calls Trump’s Remembrance Day Speech ‘Holocaust Denial’

President Donald Trump’s spokeswoman said his statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day that omitted specific reference to Jews was part of an effort to be inclusive. Tim Kaine saw a more nefarious motive behind the missive: Holocaust denial.

“President Obama, President Bush always talked about the Holocaust in connection with the slaughter of Jews. The final solution was about the slaughter of Jews. We have to remember this. This is what Holocaust denial is,” the former Hillary Clinton running mate said, in remarks Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

He traced the statement, as well as the president’s ‘Muslim ban’ to chief White House strategist Steve Bannon, whom he characterized in stark terms. “… you have the chief political adviser in the White House, Steve Bannon, who is connected with a news organization that traffics in white supremacy and anti-Semitism, and they put out a Holocaust statement that omits any mention of Jews,” Kaine said.

Bannon is the former head of Breitbart News, which he described as a “platform for the alt-right,” a collection of white supremacists, white nationalists and provocateurs who ape those attitudes to upset others.

Trump’s Holocaust Remembrance Day statement drew criticism from Jewish organizations across the spectrum, including the Anti-Defamation League and the Zionist Organization of America.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.