(JTA) — A Texas congressman apologized for using an Adolf Hitler comparison to criticize President Obama for not attending the Paris unity march.
“I need to first apologize to all those offended by my tweet,” Rep. Randy Weber, a Republican, said in a statement Tuesday. “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.”
Jewish groups and Democrats had slammed Weber for his Twitter post on Monday evening in which he said, “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.”
The American Jewish Committee and the National Jewish Democratic Council on Tuesday had called on Weber to apologize.
The AJC in a statement Tuesday called the tweet “outrageous. ”
“The notion that President Obama and Adolf Hitler would be mentioned in the same sentence is beyond reprehensible,” AJC Executive Director David Harris said.
The White House acknowledged Monday that it should have sent a higher-level representative to the anti-terrorism rally in Paris.
The United States was represented by Jane Hartley, the American ambassador to France.
Over 40 world leaders and more than 3.7 million people attended rallies in Paris and elsewhere in France in response to the killing of 12 people at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and four others at a kosher market in Paris, as well as a policewoman.
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