Republican congressman apologizes for Obama-Hitler comparison

Jewish Democrats slammed Texas Congressman Randy Weber’s tweet that ‘Even Hitler thought it more important than Obama to get to Paris.’

HAARETZ

The Democratic Party’s Jewish desk lashed out on Tuesday at a Republican Congressman’s critical tweet of Obama’s no-show at Sunday’s giant rally in Paris, in which the lawmaker noted in a smirking tone that even Hitler had made it to Paris. (The Nazis conquered the French capital in 1940.)

“For any public official to compare our nation’s president to the perpetrator of the Holocaust is simply unacceptable,” stated Greg Rosenbaum, chairman of the National Jewish Democratic Council’s board of directors.

On Monday, Texas Republican Randy Weber tweeted, “Even Adolph [sic] Hitler thought it more important than Obama to get to Paris. (For all the wrong reasons.) Obama couldn’t do it for right reasons.”

White House officials have acknowledged that they erred in not sending a delegation to the , which drew some 2 million people and about 50 world leaders following an Islamist killing spree last week that killed 17 Parisians.

Rosenbaum wrote in a statement, “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 comments immediately.”

Weber quickly did, offering his apology in a statement in which he said it was not his 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,” he wrote. “The terrorist attacks in Paris should remind us of the evil that still exists,” he added. “Hitler was the face of evil, perpetrating genocide against six million Jews and millions of other victims. Today, we are facing the evil of Islamic extremists who are attempting to instill fear and murdering the lives of innocent people from Paris to Nigeria to Jerusalem and all over the world.”