Hitler tweet lands Congress member in hot water
by Donald Harrison

SAN DIEGO (via SDONA) — A tweet by U.S. Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas) prompted some Jewish organizations and a member of Congress to call for an apology. Weber initially wrote: Even Adolph Hitler thought it more important than Obama to get to Paris. (For all the wrong reasons.) Obama couldn’t do it for right reasons.” After calls for an apology, he issued this statement on Tuesday, Jan. 13: “I need to apologize to all those offended by my tweet. It was not my intention to trivialize the Holocaust nor to compare the President to Adolf Hitler. The mention of Hitler was meant to represent the face of evil that still exists in the world today. I now realize that the use of Hitler invokes pain and emotional trauma for those affected by the atrocities of the Holocaust and victims of anti-Semitism and hate.”

That prompted Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, to comment: “Members of Congress are entitled to criticize the President, even as in this case, in an absurd and inane way. But invoking the Holocaust and comparing the United States and its government to the Nazis are never appropriate, and never acceptable. Rep. Weber’s apology is an important acknowledgement that his tweet was hurtful and that those analogies only trivialize the Holocaust.Holocaust analogies have become far too common and too frequently used by public figures. Invoking the Holocaust or Hitler’s name does little to advance the public debate or any credible critique. It is an affront to Jews and other victims of hate and to many Americans who fought heroically against the Nazis. We hope this incident is a wake-up call and a reminder of the dangers of carelessly reaching for these analogies.”
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The Jewish Citizen
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Before the apology was issued, David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee, made this statement: “The notion that President Obama and Adolf Hitler would be mentioned in the same sentence is beyond reprehensible, but that is exactly what happened in a tweet sent by Rep. Randy Weber of Texas last night.

“We fully understand the legitimacy of the debate over U.S. representation at the major rally in Paris on Sunday. However, resorting to comparisons with the leader of the Third Reich, who was responsible for nearly 60 million deaths, including six million Jews, as well as brutal occupation policies, including in Paris, should have no place in American political discourse.

“We urge Congressman Weber to withdraw his language immediately and issue an appropriate apology.”

The National Jewish Democratic Council issued a news release: “For any public official to compare our nation’s president to the perpetrator of the Holocaust is simply unacceptable,” stated Greg Rosenbaum, chair of the NJDC Board of Directors. “As a member of Congress and especially as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, one would hope that Rep. Weber would know better than to make such an outrageous remark. Any comparisons to Hitler are absolutely out of line and just the latest example of the sort of damaging and vitriolic language Republicans routinely use to describe our president. We demand that Rep. Weber apologize for his comment immediately.”

U.S. Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) commented: “Rep. Weber’s tweet is vile and stoops to a new low level by desecrating the victims of the Holocaust to make a political point. At a time when we should be coming together in the wake of the attacks in Paris, Rep. Weber turned instead to hate. While I, too, disagree with the President’s absence in Paris, there is a proper way to express that disagreement, unlike Rep. Weber’s tweet. I call on all Members of Congress to immediately condemn this language, and I demand that Rep. Weber apologize for his complete lack of judgment. In the wake of the controversy surrounding Majority Whip Steve Scalise’s (R-LA) speech at a gathering hosted by white-supremacist leaders in 2002, Rep. Webster’s tweet is evident of a disturbing trend of hate emanating from House Republicans.”

Donald Harrison is the editor of San Diego Jewish World, which along with The Moderate Voice is a member of the San Diego Online News Association. This article is reprinted from its website.